FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – With a 34-20 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium, the Patriots clinched the number two seed in the conference, earning a first-round bye in the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. Hours after locking up their 12th win of the season, the league announced its playoff pairings and the Patriots learned that they will host an AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 8:15 p.m. A limited number of individual tickets will go on sale Monday, Jan. 6, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. exclusively through Ticketmaster.
The Patriots are the first AFC team to earn four consecutive first-round playoff byes and are just the third team in NFL history to do so, joining Dallas (1992-95) and San Francisco (1992-95). On Saturday, Jan. 11, the Patriots will host their 14th playoff game since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, which is four more than the second-place Colts have hosted. The Patriots are 10-3 (.769) in the playoffs at Gillette Stadium.
For the first 34 years in the franchise's history, the Patriots hosted just one playoff game – a loss to the Houston Oilers in 1978. Yet, in the 20 seasons since Robert Kraft purchased the franchise in 1994, the Patriots have qualified for the playoffs 15 times, including 13 times as division champions, and have hosted a league-leading 17 playoff games. The Patriots are 14-3 in those games.
This year will mark the fifth time in franchise history that the Patriots have earned the number two seed to enter the playoffs. Historically, that home-field advantage has helped propel the Patriots through the playoffs as the team has advanced to the Super Bowl on three of those five occasions.
After fulfilling orders for Patriots Season Ticket Holders and Patriots Wait List members, the remaining tickets will be placed on sale to the public on Monday, Jan. 6, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. All Patriots playoff ticket orders will be processed through Ticketmaster. Playoff tickets will NOT be sold at the Gillette Stadium Ticket Office. Ticket orders can be processed one of two ways, online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone by calling 800-745-3000. Visa, a proud sponsor of the National Football League and the New England Patriots, will be the only accepted form of payment. Please beware of any tickets acquired through third-party vendors or non-Ticketmaster transactions. Counterfeit tickets are not accepted at Gillette Stadium.
Details for Monday's public sale are listed below:
Sale Date: Monday, January 6, 2014
Time: 10:00 a.m. ET
Where: Ticketmaster Phone Center or on-line at www.ticketmaster.com only
Phone: 800-745-3000
Payment: Visa debit or credit card only
Limits: Tickets are very limited. There will be a 4 ticket limit per person.
Pricing: Playoff pricing is set by the NFL. The individual ticket prices for the AFC Divisional Playoff game range from $230 (100-Level Sideline) to $100 (300 Level).
The dates and times for the upcoming NFL playoff games are listed below:
WILD CARD AND PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Saturday, January 4, 2014
4:35 pm – AFC Wild Card Playoff – Kansas City at Indianapolis (NBC)
8:10 pm – NFC Wild Card Playoff – New Orleans at Philadelphia (NBC)
Sunday, January 5, 2014
1:05 pm – AFC Wild Card Playoff – San Diego at Cincinnati (CBS)
4:40 pm –NFC Wild Card Playoff – San Francisco at Green Bay (FOX)
NFL DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Saturday, January 11, 2014
4:35 p.m. – NFC Divisional Playoff – New Orleans at Seattle (FOX)
8:15 p.m. – AFC Divisional Playoff – Indianapolis at New England (CBS)
Sunday, January 12, 2014
1:05 p.m. – NFC Divisional Playoff – Philadelphia / Dallas / Green Bay at Carolina (FOX)
4:40 p.m. – AFC Divisional Playoff – San Diego at Denver (CBS)
In the Divisional Playoffs, the division champion with the best record in each conference will host the lowest seeded Wild Card survivor. Once teams are seeded for the playoffs, positions do not change:
American Football Conference
- Denver (13-3, AFC West champion)
- New England (12-4, AFC East champion)
- Cincinnati (11-5, AFC North champion)
- Indianapolis (11-5, AFC South champion)
- Kansas City (11-5)
- San Diego (9-7)
National Football Conference
- Seattle (13-3, NFC West champion)
- Carolina (12-4, NFC South champion)
- Philadelphia (10-6, NFC East champion)
- Green Bay (8-7-1) (NFC North champion)
- San Francisco (12-4)
- New Orleans (11-5)
The AFC (CBS, 3:00 PM ET) and NFC (FOX, 6:30 PM ET) Championship Games will be played on Sunday, January 19, 2014.
The 2014 Pro Bowl (NBC, 7:30 PM ET) will be played on Sunday, January 26 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, one week before Super Bowl XLVIII takes place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. on Sunday, February 2 (FOX, 6:30 PM ET).
