Thread: Vikings plan to continue selling out home games

[size=18px]Vikings plan to continue selling out home games[/size]

Kevin Seifert, Star Tribune
Last update: August 09, 2006 – 10:08 PM

MANKATO - Tickets still remain for all 10 Vikings games this season at the Metrodome, including Monday night's preseason opener against Oakland. But the team remains confident it will continue its 8-year run of sellouts.
"We're pretty much on track," said Steve LaCroix, vice president of sales and marketing. "We will continue the streak."

Monday night's game, featuring the return of former Vikings receiver Randy Moss, is scheduled to be televised nationally by ESPN and locally by WFTC (Ch. 29). This week, the Vikings resumed their annual program of offering $20 upper-level tickets in conjunction with the United Way, which will receive a portion of the proceeds.

According to NFL rules, the game must be sold out 72 hours before kickoff -- Friday evening -- or it will be blacked out locally. The Vikings haven't faced the possibility of a blackout since the 1998 preseason, and LaCroix said there is no chance of a blackout Monday.

Meanwhile, LaCroix said the team still has full and partial season-ticket packages for sale; this year, the Vikings introduced two five-game packages. Season ticket sales will be capped just below 60,000, with the remainder reserved for single-game ticket sales.

In all, the Vikings have sold out 84 consecutive games dating back to the 1998 season.

Put on the brakes

Coach Brad Childress began reducing the training camp load Wednesday in preparation for the preseason schedule, canceling the afternoon practice, scheduled to be a 70-minute workout in shorts.

Three players left the field during the full-pads morning practice, including left tackle Bryant McKinnie (bruised hand), receiver Marcus Robinson (neck) and running back Ciatrick Fason (concussion).

"We tell the guys to come out here and do what we need them to do," defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin said. "[We ask them to] trust that we'll have their best overall interest at heart in terms of taking care of them. When we take the field, they have to do just that. They've got to take the field. They're fighting through it, so we took that precaution this afternoon in terms of giving them the afternoon off."

The Vikings are scheduled to hold two-a-day practices through Saturday but will spend only about an hour on the field Sunday.

Etc.

• David Mandelbaum, a limited partner in Vikings ownership, joined his family in donating $60,000 to fund a program that will educate 25,000 Twin Cities children about maintaining skin health during the upcoming school year. The program is known as "The Wonders of Skin, Looking Good, Being Healthy."

Mandelbaum has been treated for melanoma and serves on the board of the American Skin Association.

• Paul Wiggin, the Vikings' longtime pro scout, will be inducted Saturday into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind. Wiggin, a defensive tackle at Stanford from 1954-56, is among 20 inductees in a group that also includes receiver Jerry Rice.

Vikings plan to continue selling out home games

How can you black out a preseason game? Maybe gen mills will purchase the remaining tickets like they did back in the day.