The Green Bay Packers, Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts were granted extensions by the NFL on Thursday to sell their remaining playoff tickets to avoid television blackouts in their local markets.
On Monday, the Packers had 40,000 tickets remaining for their first-round NFC game against the San Francisco 49ers, but when their deadline came Thursday, they still had 3,000 tickets left. Green Bay now has until 5 p.m. Friday to sell out Lambeau Field, according to ESPN.com.
The Bengals also will have an extra 24 hours to sell the remaining tickets for Sunday’s first-round AFC game against the San Diego Chargers. The number of tickets the Bengals will need to sell remains unclear, but as of Tuesday, they still had about 10,000 available. The Bengals will have until Friday at 4 p.m.
The Colts have some work to do, as well. They need to sell about 3,000 tickets before 4:30 p.m. Friday to avoid having their first-round AFC game against the Kansas City Chiefs blacked out in Indianapolis.
The New Orleans Saints-Philadelphia Eagles game is the only sellout of the four first-round games. An NFL playoff game has not been blacked out since the Miami Dolphins hosted the Baltimore Ravens in an AFC wild-card matchup in 2001.
