Empty Seats

NEW YORK -- Cameron Mackintosh, producer of "Miss Saigon," has acknowledged buying unsold seats to the musical during the January-February attendance slump.By making such purchases he could maintain the perception that it was the only new musical of the past two seasons to sell out consistently, when, in fact, there were periodically empty seats.Although Mr. Mackintosh would not confirm figures, members of the theater staff estimate he bought between 10 and 120 seats at various performances.

To no one's surprise, Saturday in Long Island broke gloomily, with neither dark angry clouds nor a blazing sun. The sky just hovered, as did an unmoving humidity. The clouds are burning off now, and it could be a sunny afternoon. Belmont Park feels crowded and cramped. Everything is behind some sort of barrier. Every passage way is too narrow for the people trying to get through it. What should have been the anxious buzz of people hoping to see history is now the unsettled disappointment of knowing they won't . The crowd isn't nearly what it would have been but it's still large and, remember, there's nobody allowed out in the infield here.

The decline in the general population and student enrollment in Baltimore over the last several decades has led to an immense excess physical capacity in our public school facilities: 125,000 seats for an enrollment of 82,381 students. The school system's consultants project a further decline to 70,000 students by 2015. This excess capacity is an albatross around the city's neck, costing millions of dollars a year in keeping vacant or underutilized school space open, and at the same time creating uncertainty as to where much-needed renovation efforts should be focused.

Your article "Baltimore Co. to act on school crowding" (Oct. 20) points out that we must deal with rising enrollments in the public schools. It seems the only solutions ever considered are to build more schools or to renovate or expand older ones - meaning we will be asked to fund more construction bonds and then raise more taxes to run the new schools. Meanwhile, successful private and faith-based schools are closing or barely surviving with empty seats. Yet no one seems to have the imagination to realize that they offer an excellent answer to school overcrowding that could save taxpayers money and provide immediate relief.

Orioles and Blue Jays, Mike Mussina and David Cone, a deep blue sky on a warm, windy Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards -- baseball perfection, or very nearly, and the sun glistened off several thousand empty seats yesterday.Over the course of a three-game weekend series between the Orioles and their most bitter rivals, a series blessed by fabulous springtime weather, some 18,000 tickets went unsold.Such indifference, however slight, was unthinkable before now; most games at Camden Yards, certainly ones against the Jays, sold out months ahead of time.

On Oct. 10, in New Orleans, the Rolling Stones faced something they hadn't seen in years.Empty seats.Of the 38,000 seats available for the band's show at the Louisiana Superdome, just over 32,000 were sold.This was not any cause for alarm: The show still grossed $1.4 million. The Stones' Voodoo Lounge tour, playing almost exclusively outdoor stadiums, has, after 34 shows, been seen by 1,493,818 people and grossed more than $69 million -- and that's with much of America not yet played and Mexico, South America and Europe still to go.The Stones are obviously not going to be relegated to playing bars for beer money any time soon.

OPINION: The thousands of empty seats at the Olympic venues actually make me want to go to Greece. The Greeks apparently have found something else to do in their country that's more interesting than attending the Olympics, and whatever it is, it must be pretty good. Fact: The Orioles are 55-52 this season against all opponents other than the Yankees. Opinion: Guess Bud Selig's contract extension is sort of a present from the baseball owners marking the 10th anniversary of the World Series he killed.

THE EMPTY seats at tomorrow's Maryland-Clemson football game at Memorial Stadium can be blamed on Maryland's failure to promote its only Baltimore appearance and Baltimore's total lack of promotional know-how. As Jim Henneman, of this sports staff, said to me this week: "Does anybody know they're playing this game?"* It'll be a treat to have teen-aged stars Jennifer Capriati anMonica Seles at the Baltimore Arena for the fifth annual First National Bank Tennis Classic Nov. 27, but of more importance will be the comeback effort of the woman who lined up the show, Pam Shriver.

The Orioles announced a sellout for their regular-season opener yesterday at Camden Yards, which probably evoked a measure of skepticism from anyone looking for companionship in the upper deck above left field. To be fair, the team is entitled to count all those empty seats if they can persuade someone to buy them, even if that someone - whoever that someone might be - bought the tickets only to make sure the Orioles did not have to suffer the indignity of failing to sell out Opening Day at Oriole Park for the first time.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - When the lights came up and a long ovation ended, former President Bill Clinton must have been taken aback by the sight of all those bright red seat backs. Presidents do not speak to empty chairs. But Clinton spoke to almost 900 of them here one night this week. More than a third of the 2,305 seats in Centennial Concert Hall went unsold for Clinton's Tuesday night lecture urging nations to cooperate to cure disease, eradicate poverty and battle terrorism. And a few seats were vacated, as the lights came on, by people eager to beat the rush to the coat-check room as Clinton prepared to field questions.

Will Kimi Raikkonen cut a similar path of success in NASCAR as former Formula One teammate Juan Pablo Montoya ? The proving grounds start this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Raikkonen is slated to make his NASCAR debut in Friday's Camping World Truck Series race. Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One champion, will drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports. "Both (Montoya and Raikkonen) are recognized as being incredibly brave and fast, especially on cold tires," said Bob Varsha , a longtime F1 announcer on Speed.

When I get tickets to a concert — as a fan, not on the clock — I typically only see artists I'm a big fan of, due to my own patience and bank account. Yesterday was different though. My friends convinced me to attend Pier Six's Sunday Funday, which featured many names I only knew in passing from working closely with WTMD : Bobby Long, Justin Jones, Mason Jennings, Josh Ritter, Eric Hutchinson and Amos Lee. All of the artists are classic singer-songwriters types, armed with their guitars and just enough accompanying pieces to give the harder songs an extra kick and to set the mood for the contemplative tracks.

So the four of us are sitting in the ballpark the other night, with about 8,000 other Orioles fans and 8,000 Red Sox fans, when someone says, "All these empty seats, why don't they give them away to kids?" The reference is to the upper deck, massively empty on a Wednesday night, with the Bostons in town and, more importantly, the young Orioles showing late-summer promise in the franchise's 13th consecutive losing season. It's a school night, of course, but attendance was only marginally better on a recent Saturday afternoon, before the kids went back to class.

If last weekend's sweep of the Nationals ends up being the beginning of some sort of an Orioles Renaissance, I'll tell you who should get the credit. Give it all to me. I am realistic. Of course I know that it is more likely that things will soon revert to the careless, listless baseball pollution that is a tragic contrast to the once proud "Orioles Way" and "Orioles Magic." But we all saw something that past weekend from the Birds we have been waiting to see all season, a team that actually acted like they cared if they won or lost.

I am a devout and relatively conservative lifelong Catholic and a 17-year member of St. William of York Parish. My three children all attended St. William of York School from kindergarten through eighth grade and are now enrolled at Seton Keough High School, Mt. St. Joseph High School and the Cardinal Gibbons School. In the aftermath of the decision by the Archdiocese of Baltimore to close 13 Catholic schools, I would like to offer the following observations. It has been no secret that some of the schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore have been struggling for some time, and Archbishop Edwin O'Brien was certainly correct in seeing the need to address the issues surrounding those schools.

Cards release James, also cut Hood, LaBoy nfl The Arizona Cardinals on Tuesday granted running back Edgerrin James' wish to be released and cut two others who played significant roles in the team's run to the Super Bowl. While the James move was expected, the releases of cornerback Rod Hood and defensive end Travis LaBoy were not. The moves clear significant salary cap space for the Cardinals, who want to sign new deals with linebacker Karlos Dansby and safety Adrian Wilson, and eventually with unhappy wide receiver Anquan Boldin.

JOE MARKIEWICZ remembers days he sold $400 to $500 worth of soft drinks and baseball cards to Orioles fans outside Camden Yards - a figure that sometimes spiked to $700 if a premier team like the Yankees was in town. But for Markiewicz, 42, and other vendors working outside Camden Yards, those numbers now seem as elusive as an Oriole pennant. "Right now, I'm doing about $150," Marckiewicz said as he sold goods after a 9-8 Oriole loss to Tampa Bay last weekend. "Attendance is hurting me, and it seems like every time you turn around, we're playing Tampa Bay or Detroit, and those teams aren't going to draw people."

So the four of us are sitting in the ballpark the other night, with about 8,000 other Orioles fans and 8,000 Red Sox fans, when someone says, "All these empty seats, why don't they give them away to kids?" The reference is to the upper deck, massively empty on a Wednesday night, with the Bostons in town and, more importantly, the young Orioles showing late-summer promise in the franchise's 13th consecutive losing season. It's a school night, of course, but attendance was only marginally better on a recent Saturday afternoon, before the kids went back to class.

Wall Street titan Bernard L. Madoff proved you can take an outstanding reputation and ruin it overnight. Now Roland Burris has demonstrated that even a mediocre reputation can be instantly destroyed. Mr. Burris is the prototypical time-serving career politician who owes his success to being simultaneously ambitious and bland. He has never been one to challenge the status quo, but no one underestimates his self-esteem. The two Burris children, after all, are named Roland and Rolanda. The result of his immodesty has been a persistent hunger for offices that most people thought beyond his abilities.

I couldn't help but notice those empty seats in Tampa, Fla., last weekend during the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. Here's the thing about the ACC. All this parity (mediocrity?) is great for the individual campuses because each school can imagine it has a shot at the title. And most do have a shot. But having no dominant teams - no heavyweights - doesn't play as well on the national stage because there's no compelling story line. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/terpsblog)