Seahawks make airwaves
José Miguel Romero Seattle Times staff reporter
KIRKLAND — The Seahawks' game against the St. Louis Rams tomorrow is a near sellout and will be shown on local television.
Two Seahawks corporate partners, The Home Depot and Nextel, purchased a large enough block of tickets to allow the NFL to lift the local television blackout, which would have been imposed at 1 p.m. yesterday if not for the big buy. The Seahawks were about 3,000 tickets short of lifting the blackout yesterday morning, even after being granted a 24-hour extension of the blackout deadline by the NFL, and would have faced back-to-back home games this season without a local television audience.
The two companies donated the tickets to 32 local charities, to be distributed by the team and the Seahawks Foundation.
"I thank them for that, because it's a great thing," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. "Not only for the tickets going to charity, but going to the people that probably couldn't go to the game normally."
Local Boys & Girls clubs, Seattle Public Schools and area health centers are among the nonprofit community groups that will receive the tickets.
Holmgren said the Seahawks' lack of exposure, compared to many other NFL teams, has had a negative effect. The Seahawks had two games blacked out last season.
"I think over the last couple of years, it probably has hurt us a little bit, not being able to be more visible," Holmgren said. "Because we've played some good football. Maybe not consistent enough, but we have had some really good football played, and not enough people got to see it. So, I think if you get to see a great football game and the team plays well, you can get excited if you weren't excited before, and if you didn't know anything about football, maybe you can become a fan by seeing a couple of games on TV.
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by Homeless » Sat Sep 20, 2003 11:57 am 
