The deadline is 1pm Thursday. The subject? Tickets, tickets, tickets. We posted a report from Geoff Hobson and Joe Reedy that the Bengals had over 6,000 tickets remaining for Sunday's expected thriller against the Detroit Lions. That was on a Monday.
Fast forward to Wednesday where Joe Reedy writes:
Bengals ticket manager Andrew Brown Wednesday afternoon said that over 5,000 tickets remain for Sunday’s game. They will discuss tomorrow morning whether to ask for a 24-hour extension from the league. The Bengals have sold out 50 straight regular-season and postseason games, and game has not been blacked out since November of 2003 against Houston.
The fact that they're even discussing an extension requests could only mean that they don't feel hopeful for a sellout. Geoff Hobson wrote the same thing Thursday morning.
The Bengals were still 5,000 tickets shy of a sellout Thursday morning and while a 24-hour extension is still a possibility, the club has never been this far away with the Thursday 1 p.m. deadline so close for televising the game locally. Andrew Brown, the Bengals ticket manager, said the next move could be announced as early as 11 a.m. A sellout for Sunday's 1 p.m. game against the Lions would put the game on Fox 19 in Cincinnati.
Unfortunately, if this happens, then there will likely be national attention that an 8-3 team, leading the AFC North by two games, challenging for the second seed in the division for the playoffs, can't sellout a game in early December.
UPDATE: Bengals have announced that a 24-hour extension was granted and that 3,500 tickets remain.