For the second time in four days, the San Diego Chargers have received a 24-hour extension of the deadline for selling out Qualcomm Stadium.

The widespread belief in media circles is that teams get extensions only when some other entity already has agreed to purchase any leftover tickets.  So, basically, the extension is meaningless; the game will be aired in the home team’s local market even if no further tickets are sold.

Usually, the extra tickets are purchased by the local network affiliate that would otherwise lose the ability to broadcast the game.  For example, FOX 5 in San Diego bought the rest of the tickets to Sunday’s loss to the Falcons.

This time around, the game will be aired on NFL Network, and the league is unlikely to commit to buying extra tickets to one of its franchise’s games.  Instead, our guess is that the unsold seats will be bought by the local broadcast channel(s) who have secured the rights to show the game in Southern California.