Whether for the preseason, regular season or postseason, tickets to see the four major pro sports teams in Boston remain red-hot.

Tickets to the New England Patriots’ AFC semifinal game Sunday, January 16 are officially sold out. A small amount of tickets went on sale via Ticketmaster.com last Friday, January 7, and were likely long gone even before the Patriots’ bitter rival, the New York Jets, set up a third meeting of the season between the teams by edging the Indianapolis Colts, 17-16, in a wild card game Saturday, January 8.

The New England Patriots, which have long taken a distinctly anti-ticket broker stance in the past, this week signed a travel package deal with Boston-based secondary ticket broker Ace Ticket.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the move marks a major shift for the team, which had been embroiled in a lawsuit against ticket resale marketplace StubHub for three years, before the two finally settled the case in the summer of 2009.

Apparently realizing the two were at a legal stalemate, the New England Patriots and secondary ticket company Stubhub have settled their three-year-old dispute over Patriots tickets being scalped on the resale giant.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but essentially both sides will continue with their positions of brokers and fans listing Patriots tickets on the Web site, and the Patriots stressing that it prohibits the resale of tickets to the team's home games. The Patriots sued StubHub to have the tickets removed, and the team is reportedly continuing separate lawsuits against individuals who are reselling tickets.

The New England Patriots, in an attempt to help preserve its control over the resale of its tickets, requested that TicketsNow remove the tickets from the company's exchange, the team told TicketNews.

The admission that the team was behind the move comes as little surprise because the Patriots have taken a hard line over the resale of it tickets, including suing StubHub for listing tickets on its exchange. But, the move shows just how much influence the team has in forcing a ticket exchange to bend to its will, especially considering the popularity of the team among brokers and fans and the lucrative nature of its tickets on the secondary market.

When the New England Patriots took the field Sunday, Tom Brady was set to take the snaps for the Super Bowl contender. At the 7:38 mark of the first quarter it was Matt Cassell taking the snaps for a team whose season is now uncertain.

Brady was hit on the left knee by Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard, tearing his ACL, an injury that will keep him out for the rest of the year. In the days that followed, the implications of the loss were evident both on and off the field. While the team will look to recover on the field, it may be a little more difficult for the secondary ticket market.