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On Friday, the team announced that over 3,000 tickets remained for Cincinnati's week eight game against the New York Jets. Three days later, it appears that nearly 1,000 tickets have been sold. According to Joe Danneman with Fox 19, there are over 2,000 unsold tickets remaining for Cincinnati's game against the New York Jets this weekend.
Latest word from the Bengals ticket office is still a little more than 2,000 tickets left for Sunday's game with Jets.
— Joe Danneman (@FOX19Joe) October 21, 2013
Sunday's game will be the first at Paul Brown Stadium since Cincinnati's dramatic 13-6 win over the New England Patriots on Oct. 6. Since then, the Bengals have won two road games -- in even more dramatic fashion -- returning to Cincinnati with an AFC north leading 5-2 record.
If the Bengals are unable to sell out 72 hours prior to kickoff (around 4 p.m. on Thursday), it will be blacked out locally. However, the league would likely grant the Bengals a 24-hour extension if the team were reasonably close to selling out.
The NFL continued their streak of no games being blacked out this year to seven weeks last weekend. Last year, there were 15 games that were blacked out in the local market.
But there have been close calls this season.
The Bills ran a promotion during their week against the Bengals to reduce ticket prices by as much as $15, looking to push over 7,000 tickets. Owner Ralph Wilson Jr. purchased the remaining tickets so that the game would sell out. During the same weekend, the Chargers and Colts narrowly avoided having Monday Night Football blacked out for the first time in nearly 14 years; however, "ESPN and a consortium of sponsors have agreed" to purchase enough tickets to lift the blackout. At one point that week, there were 9,000 unpaid tickets.
We're fully expecting the Bengals and Jets to sellout this weekend.
"Sales have been steady, and we're hopeful of reaching a sellout, but we'll need a continued good pace," Bengals ticket sales manager Andrew Brown said in a statement on Friday.
Cincinnati went through an 11-game stretch where ten games were blacked out from the middle of 2010 into 2011; they've since ended up selling out in all but two games last year and every game this season. The two games that didn't sell out last season were the New York Giants and Oakland Raiders, the last game that didn't sell out. They've sold out five straight games since.