Blackouts might just be a thing of the past for both the NFL and the Minnesota Vikings going forward, as the franchise announced its intention to take full advantage of a brand new policy voted in by owners for 2012.
The policy allows teams to reduce their ticket manifest, and drop their stated capacity limit down to 85% in order to avoid a television blackout for any specific game. And according to the report, the Vikings plan to move their limit to 90%, which would represent roughly 6,000 seats.
Considering this newly afforded flexibility could actually be the difference between one or two games being televised, either in Minnesota or any other city that adjusts their policy accordingly, Minnesota's VP of Sales and Marketing Steve LaCroix announced Wednesday that the team would do everything in its power to avoid a blackout situation.
"It’s important for the Vikings to take advantage of a new policy that benefits our fans and helps us achieve our goal of having our games televised throughout Minnesota," LaCroix said. "This flexibility puts us in a better position to have our home games locally televised."
Although the Vikings likely shouldn't have to worry about a sellout problem as long as Adrian Peterson is in town, this flexibility assures that it would take a pretty bleak product on the field for fans to miss a game on television.
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