Miami Dolphins Buy Own Tickets to Avoid Blackout

Well, you can't Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has never done anything nice for fans: he's taken the costly and unusual step of ordering the team to buy out the remaining stock of unsold tickets to ensure that Sundays game against the Houston Texans isn't blacked out on local television...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

September 16, 2011

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Well, you can't Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has never done anything nice for fans: he's taken the costly and unusual step of ordering the team to buy out the remaining stock of unsold tickets to ensure that Sundays game against the Houston Texans isn't blacked out on local television.

It's not unusual for the local television station carrying to game to buy up any last minute tickets to games to lift a blackout. WFOR has been shelling out for years, but apparently Sunday's ticket deficit was too big for the station to tackle on its own so Ross has stepped in. Though, WFOR and Bud Light are still chipping in.

"We don't know if this is a sustainable policy, but we're going to take it one game at a time," CEO Mike Dee said on WINZ 940 on Thursday.

As a result, season ticket holders with seats in the 100 or 400 levels will get two more tickets each. Those with season tickets in the club level will get four free tickets. Suite holders can get eight more tickets.

There's still several games left this season with lagging ticket sales. Hopefully the game on Sunday isn't too painful to watch from home. Maybe a good showing will ensure local fans will want to shell out for tickets.

The Dolphins hadn't had a regular season home game blacked out in 103 games.

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