Will the Lions Get Blacked Out?

Sunday's game at home against Minnesota has a very good chance of being blacked out.  According to NFL rules, teams have to sellout all tickets prior to 4:05 p.m. ET on the Thursday before a game (assuming that game is on a Sunday), otherwise it will be blacked out locally.  The problem for the Lions is that they still have around 2,000 tickets remaining and the deadline to achieve a sellout has already passed.  The NFL did grant a one day extension, giving Detroit until tomorrow at 4:05 to get all tickets sold, but if that doesn't happen, people around the Detroit area will not be able to watch the game.

Here are the specifics:

If this game is indeed blacked out, it would be the first time it happened since the Lions moved to Ford Field.  I don't know if the Lions can just simply buy the remaining tickets or how that exactly works, but something better get done to get rid of the extra tickets.  You can definitely imagine that fans would be pissed if they couldn't even watch their team against a division rival in the second week of the season.

The only good I can see from this situation is if it grabbed William Clay Ford's attention just a little bit.  Getting blacked out means fans are not as interested in the team as previous years -- at least not interested in attending games.  That means less money, and although it may not be a huge difference in profit, it still should grab his attention.