The Minnesota Vikings are hoping rookie sensation Adrian Peterson can be a star off the field as well.
The team is using Peterson in an ad blitz this week to try to sell out Sunday’s game against Oakland. It would be the Vikings’ 101st straight sellout.
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| Peterson is the star of a T-shirt
offerdesigned to sell out the
Nov. 18 game. |
Peterson earlier this month set the NFL single-game rushing record in just his eighth game in the league.
“We have some challenges on the ticket front,” said Steve LaCroix, Vikings vice president of marketing.
The team has struggled on the field in recent years. LaCroix also pointed to the difficulties in selling upper-tier tickets in the aging Metrodome when fans can enjoy high-definition television at home.
The club for years has been lobbying for a new facility, to no avail.
TV ads will run on WCCO-4 (CBS), which would broadcast the Oakland game, as well as on radio.
Sponsor Star Tribune newspaper is running a promotion offering free T-shirts for ticket buyers.
As of the middle of last week, the team was 4,000 tickets shy of a sellout in the 62,000-seat stadium. By NFL rules, if the game is not sold out by Thursday, 72 hours prior to kickoff, the game will be blacked out on television locally.
The team had expected to run an in-season ticket campaign, but the emergence of Peterson changed the content. The team was cutting the ads just last week and may use them again to promote home games in December.
