The Bengals will be "bringing over 2,100 season ticket holders" for their home game against the Redskins at Wembley Stadium on Oct. 30 -- a number that "surprised the NFL and rates as the third-best number of domestic sales in the league's 10-year run of games in England," according to Jim Owczarski of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. NFL Exec VP/Int'l Mark Waller said, "It is a very, very surprising aspect of this, the level of demand for Bengals fans is incredibly high. And it's not just demand. It's translating into people actually buying the tickets and committing to make the trip." Owczarski notes the Bengals also are offering another "allotment of about 500 tickets for domestic sale to season ticket holders." Waller said that often times, "teams do not sell out that second allotment." But the Bengals did sell out that allotment, "as well as two additional allotments," which caused the NFL to "dip into other avenues such as ticket pools reserved for sponsors and the league itself to satisfy those demands." Games held in London "typically sell out, but the domestic demand for the Bengals presented an interesting conundrum for the league this year." Waller: "The goal for us is to sell as many tickets as possible to fans in the UK. That's why we're playing the game. There's a little bit of tension internally about, well if we give more tickets back to Cincinnati that's less tickets to sell in the UK. So that's always an internal discussion. It's definitely not easy" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 6/10).
