Season Tickets

Quote: "Sorry for the technical difficulties, but at least it's not raining." -- Scoreboard message at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., during part of a 15-minute power failure.It's a fact: Despite their no-name lineup, the Twins sold 7,619 season tickets for 1999, surpassing last year's 6,043. The $99 season-ticket deal, which includes an autographed Kirby Puckett bat for every pair of seats, still is available.Who's hot: Yankees starters have allowed 16 hits in 34 1/3 innings.Who's not: The White Sox's Jaime Navarro gave up seven runs on eight hits in 2 1/3 innings after going 4-1 in spring training.

FALL for sports fans in America means more than bowl games and free throws. It's the season for televised prizefights between billionaire team owners and their millionaire players.Which means it's also the season for reruns of the mad-as-hell-and-not-taking-it-anymore American sports fan. Cast as the helpless victim, he pops up on the evening news gripping a beer mug, shaking his head and figuratively burning his season tickets -- basketball tickets this year.This might be it, we're told: the demise of the golden goose.

Cavaliers: Vitaly Potapenko broke his nose in the third quarter and played the rest of the game wearing a protective mask.Hawks: Roshown McLeod, the team's first-round pick from Duke, didn't play because of a strained left hamstring that troubled him throughout training camp. Atlanta will play 14 games at the Georgia Dome and 11 at Georgia Tech's arena this season.Heat: Miami topped 10,000 season tickets for the first time since 1994-95, the year before Pat Riley became coach. Clarence Weatherspoon, the team's most significant off-season acquisition, did not play until the final five minutes.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Charge 'em more and they'll still come.That appears to be the lesson learned from the Orioles' across-the-board December ticket price hike as fans and corporate sponsors are lining up in record numbers to see a piece of the 1998 season. The club had sold 2,748,772 tickets at the start of business yesterday, about 80,000 more than at the same point last year, according to vice-chairman of business and finance Joe Foss.The enthusiastic response strongly suggests that the Orioles will eclipse last season's record 3,711,132 attendance.

Several hundred Ravens fans, seeing their seats at the new stadium for the first time at Thursday's open house, have asked the team to move them to a new location.The team is processing these complaints on a case-by-case basis and has provided new seats to some customers and told others that there is nothing that can be done. Top priority is being given to people who found railings blocking their view, followed by fans with medical disabilities for whom the trek to the upper deck is too arduous.

The Ravens will open their new stadium with something many would have thought unlikely in this city of legendary football fandom: unsold season tickets.With about 52,000 season tickets sold, each with the required permanent seat license, the team has about 7,000 left to sell. The one-time PSL fees range from $250 to $3,000, plus the ticket."We're pleased. We always kind of paralleled ourselves with Carolina, and they had 4,000 PSLs available when they started their season at the Charlotte stadium," said Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne.

The Spirit's owner says his money-losing professional indoor soccer team will go out of business unless it gets corporate and fan commitments to buy 50,000 tickets for the 1998-99 season by March 30."I don't believe we have any viable alternative," owner Bill Stealey wrote in a Feb. 23 letter to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. He said that in an attempt to spread chronic losses he has been absorbing, "Investors and limited partners have been pursued, and no one has stepped forward."The Spirit's general manager, Drew Forrester, elaborated in an interview Tuesday that Stealey, a former Hunt Valley businessman whose primary interest is his computer software-making business in Raleigh, N.C., has lost an average of about $500,000 a year during his six years of club ownership.

The public will have its first opportunity on Saturday to buy single-game tickets for the Ravens' season when the team opens its ticket office at the new stadium.Separately, the team is negotiating with Aretha Franklin to give a free concert outside the stadium on Sept. 5, the eve of its regular-season opener.This Saturday, only tickets to the preseason games will be sold: Aug. 8 against the Chicago Bears and Aug. 24 against the Philadelphia Eagles.Single-game tickets for the regular season, which begins Sept.

Spirit general manager Drew Forrester recalled the team's first game five months ago: "You know, that opening game in Philadelphia was a microcosm of the season. We fell behind 9-0, but battled back to lead at halftime. Then, we fell behind again before tying the game late, and losing in overtime. We had four chances to score and didn't. They had one chance and won."Good memory. Something that's not always advantageous when your team is 11-27 heading into the last two games of the season, tonight against Philadelphia (7: 35)

If you camped out but still didn't get the seats you wanted for Ravens games when they went on sale over the weekend, hold on. More may become available in the fall.The team started selling single-game tickets for the regular season over the weekend, and moved more than 15,000 of the 48,000 put up for sale for the final seven home games of the season. (The home opener on Sept. 6 against Pittsburgh had been sold out by lottery.)Those tickets represent the 6,000 per game that Ravens officials have said they will set aside for fans who don't want to buy season tickets and the required permanent seat licenses.

It wasn't that long ago when owning an NFL franchise was nearly a no-risk venture. Revenue sharing, a salary cap and the most lucrative television contract in professional sports made it virtually impossible to go wrong from a business standpoint. Even if the team floundered, your bank account did not. But the recent recession ushered in a new set of realities. For the first time in a decade, eight NFL teams saw their overall value decline, according to annual rankings compiled by Forbes magazine.

After 11 straight losing seasons, the Orioles might struggle to fill Camden Yards in any economy. This year, they'll try to sell a struggling product in the bleakest financial climate since the Great Depression. "If you don't have a strong-performing team, you're in a really vulnerable situation," said John Moag, chairman of Moag & Co., a Baltimore-based investment banking firm that focuses on sports. "That hasn't been the case in past recessions." Orioles officials say that with the season opening today at Camden Yards, it's too early to know how much they'll be hurt by the recession.

Velma Greene will return tomorrow to her job teaching math at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, Va., and she'll have quite a story to tell. Greene, 48, was designated last night as the 100 millionth person to attend a game in Orioles' franchise history. Her prize, courtesy of the Orioles and the Maryland Lottery, was $100,000, season tickets for five years and a package of other amenities that included a seat upgrade and a commemorative jersey. "I've never had an experience like this in my life," said Greene, who was recognized in an on-field presentation.

Kevin Gracie and four of his buddies met at Pickles Pub across the street from Camden Yards yesterday afternoon to wait out the long line at the ticket gate. When they saw the crowd thin, they walked over to Gate H, spent two minutes in line, joking about jockeying for position. Then, as he handed over his ticket, Gracie suddenly realized it would be an evening to remember. He was presented with a $50,000 check and awarded two Orioles season tickets for the next five years as the 50 millionth fan in Camden Yards' 17-season history.

In a shaky economy, we all know what the financial experts advise: cancel your cable, drop your season tickets and start staying in. In essence, stop having fun. But being frugal and being cultured don't have to be mutually exclusive. Richard Anderson The Sun's critics and arts writers offer up their best advice on now to enjoy the Baltimore arts scene on a budget. THEATER Go on a weeknight: If you've been to the Charles Theatre in the past year, chances are you've seen commercials featuring Irene Lewis, Center Stage's artistic director.

A couple of nights ago, I was watching the Arena Football League game between the Los Angeles Avengers and the Arizona Rattlers when the announcers discussed a startling promotion by the Arizona franchise. The team has guaranteed its season-ticket holders that the Rattlers would make the playoffs or the fans will get a refund on their season tickets. Six teams from the Rattlers' conference qualify for the playoffs and they're 1-1 so far. This comes from the league's Web site: "We are putting millions of dollars on the line," Rattlers managing partner Brett Bouchy said.

An Orioles spokesman confirmed yesterday that the club has raised season ticket prices for select seats at Camden Yards for 2008, the first such increase in several years. "Camden Yards remains affordable to everyone as a season-plan holder or on an individual basis," said Greg Bader, the Orioles' director of communications. "A select number of season tickets have increased one to three dollars for the first time in four seasons, as we remain committed to creating the premier ballpark experience to everyone who attends an Orioles game."

Like other former and current New Orleans Saints players, Miami Dolphins right guard Kendyl Jacox gushes about the rabidness of Saints fans. Unfortunately, the costliest national disaster in U.S. history was needed to truly show it. While Saints running back Deuce McAllister recently said that New Orleans residents are born with "black and gold in your blood," many didn't want to spend their green to support the franchise after four consecutive seasons...

UM football ticket sales strong Football season-ticket sales have nearly doubled over the past five seasons under coach Ralph Friedgen, and Maryland officials said this year's number is expected to match or exceed last season's total despite consecutive losing seasons. Maryland sold 15,759 season tickets in 2001, when Friedgen took over the program and led the Terps to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Friedgen, who was brought in to resurrect a program that had two winning seasons in 16 years, immediately had three consecutive 10-win seasons, and sales jumped to 31,542 last year.

Stocks? Forget 'em. Bonds? Returns too low. Permanent seat licenses? Now you're talking. The licenses that the Ravens and some other National Football League teams require fans to purchase to buy season tickets - often to help pay for stadium construction or renovation - have gone from being what many regarded as an extortionary annoyance to what some now consider a dandy investment. For instance, when the Ravens' stadium opened in 1998, a permanent seat license ranged from $250 to $3,000, depending on the location of the seat covered by the license.