HONOLULU -- The NFL has lifted the local TV blackout for Sunday's Pro Bowl, with the all-star game close to being sold out for the 30th straight year.
The league had granted two extensions before lifting the blackout for Hawaii. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy says only a few hundred tickets remained as of Saturday.
The Pro Bowl has sold out, usually weeks in advance, every year since moving to the 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium in 1980. It will be televised on NBC.
There has been only one blackout in the history of the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. The 1982 game, which was the year of the players' strike, was blacked out locally, although it was sold out by kickoff.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
