LEADOFF: How many Atlanta homes watched Falcons beat Seahawks?

Good morning. This is Leadoff, the early buzz in Atlanta sports.

Thirty-five percent of homes with TVs in the Atlanta market were watching as the Falcons advanced to the NFC championship game by defeating Seattle on Saturday.

The 35.0 rating translates to an audience of about 845,000 homes in the Atlanta television market.

Nationally, the Falcons-Seahawks game posted an 18.3 overnight rating, meaning 18.3 percent of the TV households in the 56 metered markets tuned in on average.

The national overnight ratings for the other divisional round playoff games: a massive 28.2 for Green Bay’s victory over Dallas on Sunday, 21.9 for Pittsburgh’s win over Kansas City on Sunday night and 18.2 for New England’s win over Houston on Saturday night.

The highest local-market ratings over the weekend were 57.1 in Pittsburgh and 55.2 in Kansas City for the Steelers-Chiefs game, followed by 55.0 in Milwaukee and 46.6 in Dallas-Fort Worth for the Packers-Cowboys game.

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As of Monday, the average asking price on the secondary market for NFC championship game tickets was $777, with a low of $307.

That's according to Jesse Lawrence, CEO of TicketIQ, an aggregator of ticket-buying options.

But Lawrence noted in an email that there were more than 10,000 Falcons-Packers tickets available, “so prices should come down.”

As of Monday, though, he pointed out that tickets on the re-sale market for Sunday’s game are more than twice as expensive as were tickets to the Jan. 2013 Falcons-49ers NFC championship game and the Jan. 2011 Falcons-Packers divisional playoff game.

In fact, Lawrence said the Falcons-Packers prices are the second highest TicketIQ has tracked for a sports event at the Georgia Dome since his company began collecting ticket re-sale data in 2010. The highest at the Dome since then, according to his figures, was an average re-sale price of $887 for the 2013 Final Four.

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As loud as Falcons fans were at Saturday's win over the Seahawks, coach Dan Quinn wants them to be louder for Sunday's game against the Packers.

Click here for Michael Cunningham's report from Flowery Branch.

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