Watchdog

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who represents the state adjacent to where the Giants play, pressured Ticketmaster to stop restricting tickets to the Giants-Bucs game to residents of Florida.

And it worked! Presumably the company decided that annoying the Bucs by backing off was better than annoying the AG of a very important state in which it conducts business.

In the morning, the restriction still was in place on Ticketmaster's Web site for Sunday's Bucs game. By early afternoon, it was gone.

Here is the statement from Cuomo's office:

"It has come to our attention that Ticketmaster had restricted sale of tickets for the upcoming New York Giants versus Tampa Bay Buccaneers football playoff game to be held in Florida this weekend. The Ticketmaster restriction allowed only Florida residents to purchase tickets.

"We believe Ticketmasters’ restriction raises significant legal issues and was causing consumer frauds in schemes to circumvent the restriction. We contacted Ticketmaster about our concerns.

"Ticketmaster has agreed to immediately eliminate the Florida residency restrictions for purchasing tickets which will now be open to New York and New Jersey residents, as well as other states’ residents.

"Ticketmaster agreed to immediately change their website to allow such sales to take place.

"We thank Ticketmaster for its cooperation.”

Maybe now the Bucs finally can sell out the game.