While there are plenty of exciting matchups in Week 18 of the NFL regular season, none are more highly anticipated than the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Detroit Lions.
Not only are these two of the best teams in the NFL period, but they will both be battling for the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, promising a bye week and home-field advantage until the Super Bowl.
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While both teams have excellent players on offense and defense, the Lions have the benefit of playing this game at Ford Field in Detroit.
Naturally, the Vikings want to cut that advantage as short as possible, and they've done so in a somewhat controversial fashion.
According to a report from Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, the Vikings organization bought about 1,900 tickets for the game at about $1,000 each. That's right, they spent almost $2 million on tickets for the game.
Minnesota then offered the purchased tickets to season ticket holders via email at a lower price point. Some seats were even sold for only $200 per ticket.
"As a valued season ticket member, we want to offer you the opportunity to purchase lower-level seats for Sunday night's game," the email read.
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According to Breer's sources, the Vikings' intention was "first and foremost to give players' and staffers' families a better experience at one of the biggest regular-season games in team history."
"Given the uniqueness of this game, we wanted to offer our stakeholders—staff, family, season ticket members, and team partners—an opportunity to attend," team spokesman Jeff Anderson said in a statement.
The tickets were originally available on a first-come-first-serve basis and were "intended to be used by Vikings fans and not positioned for resale."
That being said, some ticketholders still sold their tickets and were seen on secondary sites for as much as $1,200 each.
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The Lions caught on to what was happening and reported the incident to the league office. However, they were told that Minnesota didn't break any NFL rules, per Breer's sources.
No matter how this ticket situation ends up, there's one thing we know for sure: this is going to be one heck of a game.
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