EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- 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.
Vikings 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.
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Seats for the Oct. 5 game against the Green Bay Packers -- Favre's former team -- are only available through a season ticket. Roughly 6,000 season tickets remain. 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 the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now, only a limited amount of seats are available for Friday night's preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs, 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 also is moving. LaCroix said several hundred pre-orders for Favre jerseys were placed online Tuesday. The purple No. 4s were scheduled to show up in stores 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 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 team was on the phone with Reebok to get an order of No. 4 jerseys with the quarterback's name on the back. The apparel company sent a truckload from its factory in Indianapolis to stock stores at malls in the Twin Cities, and more are on the way.
"He was right up there at the top of jersey sales and so we're ready," he said.
Ticket demand at online broker RazorGator.com has soared, according to Scott Roback, vice president of business development. Prices on the site for tickets to Favre's return to Lambeau Field in Green Bay on Nov. 1 leaped 118 percent, from $441.48 to $975.56. For the Oct. 5 home game when the Packers come to the Metrodome, tickets on the site are up from $263.13 to $402.48.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
