Want to draw people to your stadium? Have the No. 3 defense in the NFL, become a playoff team, and show a promising core of players. Easy right? In Jacksonville, apparently so. The Jaguars and the NFL took the tarps off of about 3,501 seats for their first playoff game since 2007, and their first home playoff game since 1999. The tickets sold out in just five minutes.

Upon the announcement that they were taking the tarps off on Thursday, the Jaguars released a statement explaining why EverBank normally had them -- probably because this season is the first time anyone has legitimately cared for reasons outside of mocking attendance.

The response from Jaguars fans to this week's playoff game ticket sales has been tremendous.  We've watched firsthand as the community rallied behind the Jaguars during our last few home games, but the demand over the last 48 hours has exceeded expectations. 

During the regular season, NFL policy prohibits a change in seating capacity, and sponsorships for our tarps are sold on a season-long basis.  Following yesterday's rapid sellout, this morning the Jaguars sought and received permission from the League and our sponsors – Navy Mutual and FDOT's "Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow" campaign – to remove the tarps and sell those seats for our home playoff game next weekend. 

The Jaguars are grateful to the League and our gracious sponsors for allowing even more fans to be there to experience the Jaguars' first home playoff game in nearly two decades. 

These additional 3,501 seats will go on sale Friday, Dec. 29 at 10 a.m. via www.jaguars.com/playoffs.  Tickets will only be available online and no walk-up requests will be taken at the box office.  After those tickets are sold, the team will also make a limited number of standing-room-only tickets available for purchase. 

It's actually a pretty cool gesture, given how sponsors normally handle this kind of thing -- but they did get a nice little shout-out and easy good press from the press release. The tickets went on sale, and the Jaguars tweeted out that they sold out instantly.

Some tickets still remain, but as the tweet says, it's standing room only now. The Jaguars could face one of four teams in the AFC wild-card game: the Titans, Ravens, Bills or Chargers. Regardless of who they play, Jacksonville is going to be rowdy on the first weekend of January.