Cincinnati Bengals "still not close" to selling out against the Minnesota Vikings

In a way it wouldn't be entirely surprising if the Cincinnati Bengals failed to sellout this weekend against the Minnesota Vikings. Realizing that the team would struggle to push tickets, they began a promotion to sell a package deal by combining tickets for the Vikings and Ravens, the final two home games of the year, and forgoing any service charge -- which is nearly 15 percent of the total cost.

Based on that, it was easily to conclude a state of worry for Sunday's game against the Vikings.

How close are they to selling out? On Wednesday night, Joe Reedy with the Cincinnati Enquirer tweeted that they're "still not close."

RT @shirk83: @joereedy Do you know if the Bengals game is close to being sell out?>Still not close

— Joe Reedy (@joereedy) December 19, 2013

Since that was Wednesday night, maybe there was a run on tickets in the past 12 hours for optimistic prognostications that a black out would be lifted. The Bengals have until 1 p.m. (ET), 72 hours before kickoff, to announce a sell out or request a 24-hour extension (which are only given if a team is reasonably close to selling out).

I have no explanation.