11.17.2009 11:39 am
Blackout looming? 5,000 tickets left for Rams-Cards
By Jim Thomas
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Last week, the Rams had 2,500 tickets to sell at the start of the week to avert a blackout of their home game against New Orleans.
The challenge is twice as tough this week. At the close of the business day Monday, 5,000 tickets remained for this Sunday’s home game with the Arizona Cardinals.
The Rams were hoping that the return of quarterback Kurt Warner and the fact that Sunday’s game at the Edward Jones Dome has a late start (3:05 p.m., St. Louis time) would lead to the team’s fifth consecutive regular-season sellout in 2009.
But 5,000 is a big number.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that our fans will want to see this game, but it is a significant challenge,” said Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ executive vice president of football operations.
Last week, with half as many tickets to move, the Rams needed an extension of the Thursday blackout deadline and a promotion in which members of the military were given free tickets for every ticket sold during the week to meet sellout requirements and get the game televised on local TV.
Since the Rams franchise moved to St. Louis in 1995, only eight of 121 regular-season and playoff home games have been blacked out.
-11-17-2009, 02:54 PM