Cincinnati Bengals Fall Short Of Selling Out Against The New York Giants

The Cincinnati Bengals announced on Thursday that with several thousand tickets remaining, this weekend's game against the New York Giants falls well short of being called an official sellout. In fact it wasn't even close enough for the team to request an extension from the league office.

Which means that the game will be blacked out locally within surrounding markets including Cincinnati, Dayton and Lexington, Kentucky. That includes local television, NFL Ticket and other non-internet based services.

This breaks a rather humble five-game streak of sellouts, dating back to the regular season finale against the Baltimore Ravens.

Looking at the remainder of the schedule, it's hard to see where the Bengals won't sellout. Is Carson Palmer's return to Paul Brown Stadium enough on November 25? We've heard that the Dallas Cowboys is a "virtual" sellout, but we're not sure if that's ever been made official.

The Baltimore Ravens wrap up Cincinnati's home schedule. But since the Bengals appear out of the postseason, this one could be just as iffy.

The NFL has sports an increase in attendance this year overall, with three weekends having soldout every game and an average increase of paid attendance of over 1,000.

Prior to Week Ten, only four games have been blacked out (per Pro Football Talk): Week One in Tampa Bay, Week Four in Tampa Bay, Week Five in Tampa Bay and Week Three in San Diego.

The Bengals aren't the only one's failing to sellout. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers failed to sellout this Sunday against the Chargers with a reported 9,000 tickets available on Monday. Tampa Bay was one of the teams that reduced their ticket threshold to 85 percent.