Associated Press
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. ó The Vikings have sold more than 3,200 season tickets since news broke that Brett Favre was coming to Minnesota. That’s in approximately a 24-hour span.
Chief marketing officer Steve LaCroix said the team has sold about 11,000 single-game tickets during that time as fans clamor over the arrival of the veteran quarterback.
Seats for the game against Green Bay on Oct. 5 are only available through a season ticket. There are roughly 6,000 season tickets remaining. The Vikings had to race to beat the blackout deadline for several games last season, including needing two extensions from the NFL for the first-round playoff game against Philadelphia.
Now, there are only a limited amount of seats for the preseason game Friday night against Kansas City, in which Favre is expected to make his Vikings debut.
“Blackouts, obviously we don’t want to have to face that issue like we have the past few years, but there is still a lot of work to do on our front,” LaCroix said.
Merchandise is also moving. LaCroix said several hundred pre-orders for Favre jerseys were placed online Tuesday. The purple No. 4s were to show up in stores on Wednesday.
“It’s fun to be part of this and have the fans react the way that they did. To see them outside lining the streets was something unexpected, but obviously pretty cool,” LaCroix said of fans turning out on Tuesday to catch a glimpse of Favre. “We’re just trying to make sure that we manage the level of interest. We want to sustain the level of interest. We want to sustain the business and not just make a quick spike.”
As soon as Vikings coach Brad Childress picked up Favre from the airport, the Vikings were on the phone with Reebok to get an order of No. 4 jerseys with his name on the back. The apparel company sent a truckload from its factory to stock stores at malls in the Twin Cities, and more are on the way.
LaCroix said that more than 200,000 people bought Favre’s Jets jersey last year, and the demand for the Vikings version figures to be even higher.
“He was right up there at the top of jersey sales and so we’re ready,” he said.