If you're a poor Cincinnatian who can't afford Bengals tickets and you were wondering how in the name of Boomer Esiason you were going to watch the Houston game this Sunday, worry no more.
At 1:05 p.m. on Twitter, our favorite outgoing receiver, Chad Ochocinco, announced that he's teamed up with Motorola to purchase the remaining tickets. There were believed to be about 2,000 left for Sunday's game.
The Bengals went on an all out blitz this week trying to sell tickets. On Monday morning the Bengals ticket office said there were about 7,500 non-premium seats left for Sunday's game.
Wednesday evening, operation "sell tickets or die" continued. Bengals all-time leading scorer Jim Breech hosted a conference call with Marvin Lewis, Ochocinco, Dhani Jones, Ray Maualuga and Andrew Whitworth. Over 13,000 Bengals fans listened in at some point during the hour long call.
By Thursday at 1 p.m., only 3,000 tickets were left. Because the Bengals were able to sell 4,500 tickets in three days, the NFL granted the team a 24-hour extension, a privilege usually reserved for clubs that are only 1,500 tickets short of a sell out.
Under normal circumstances, if an NFL game is not sold out within 72-hours of kickoff, it is not shown on local TV. If a team is close to selling out, the NFL will grant the team a 24-hour extension to sell the tickets. The Bengals had until 1 p.m. today to sell out the game.
Official word of the sell out is not expected from the Bengals until 4 p.m.
Again, no official announcement has come from the team. INSIC puts the sellout at 90-10 percent. We don't think there is anyway Chad would put his fun loving reputation on the line if the sell out wasn't going to happen.
Here's how we think the city should reward Chad, the next 85 kids born in the Greater Cincinnati Area should be named Ocho, Cinco or Awesome-O.
*Update* Cincinnati Enquirer beat writer Joe Reedy has confirmed the sellout with Channel 12 and the station now has a story up on their site.
*Update 2* Just when this story couldn't get any more ridiculously awesome, the Bengals official website announced at 2:35 p.m. that Motorola will be giving away 1200 free tickets to the game, per the website:
"The Bengals, Local 12 (CBS affiliate WKRC-TV in Cincinnati) and Motorola worked together to ensure the blackout would be lifted. As part of this plan, Motorola will give away 1,200 tickets (600 pairs of tickets) to Bengals fans for free, starting at 11:30 am Saturday at the North Ticket Office (next to the Bengals Pro Shop) at PBS. Motorola is a long-time sponsor of the Bengals and has a newly aligned partnership with Ochocinco."
Wow. Tomorrow's INSIC headline, "Riots hit Cincinnati for second time this decade."
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