Cowboys Could Set Attendance Record, Still Get Blacked Out

The Cowboys have sold over 20,000 standing-room tickets for their official stadium opener Sunday and have a shot to break the NFL attendance record....if only they can can convince a few people to buy actual seats.

Dallas has until 7:15 tonight to sell their remaining reserve tickets for the Giants game or risk being blacked out on local TV. Team officials say they have "no doubt" that all tickets will be sold and the team will avoid its first blackout since 1990, but as of 11:00 a.m. there are still a few hundred tickets unsold. And they may be severely overestimating the number of Texans willing to pay $239 a pop (plus convenience fees!) to sit in the . Especially when they can pay $29 for a "Party Pass" and just poach the unoccupied seats.

On the other hand, Cowboy fans are lunatics so anything is possible. Well over 20,000 of them are willing to stand and watch the game on giant TVs instead of on their couch, which when combined with the nearly 80,000-seated customers could approach the 103,467 who saw Arizona play San Francisco in Mexico City in 2005. But it's not a sellout if seats are empty (ask the Yankees) and it would certainly soothe the haters to know that the 100,000 people inside Cowboys Stadium are the only Dallas-area residents allowed to watch their football team.

Yeah, that probably won't happen. But if the team struggles at all this year, those $239 seats are going to look a lot less attractive.

Cowboys Officials Have No Doubt Game Will Be On TV [CBS11] Crowd of 100,000-plus could watch Dallas Cowboys' first regular-season game at new stadium [ESPN]