Post by TheShadow on Feb 18, 2006 13:57:20 GMT -5
www.insidebayarea.com/
THE Oakland Raiders got it right when Silver and Black officials unveiled its new more-fan-friendly ticket plan.
Gone are the hated Personal Seating Licenses (PSLs) that made the Raiders faithful pay twice for their seats. Gone is the despised Oakland Football Marketing Association. An ominous taxpayer debt to pay for the Raiders return still hovers overhead, but the team is now in charge of ticket sales as it should have been from the beginning of its return.
And, its long legal disputes with the city of Oakland and Alameda County may be en route to final resolution.
All of which alienated the public and hurt the Raiders draw at the gate.
Maybe now enough tickets can be sold that Oakland will no longer be branded the TV-blackout-capital of the National Football League.
Instead, we have a new eight-tier ticket system with prices ranging from a rather pedestrian $26 to $101. It should be much fairer, more accessible and enticing for the teams supposed blue-collar public.
Fans have more ticket choices and if they tap in at the lower end of the scale — nosebleed seats on Mt. Davis — going to a Raiders game at McAfee Coliseum could cost less than tickets to As, Warriors, Cal and Stanford contests. Discount tickets to Hawaii and savings at Raider Image stores further sweeten the pot.
This is a good thing. The Raiders ticketing mantra is customer service and to never say no, says Chief Executive Amy Trask, the teams business guru.
Too bad it comes 11 years after the team returned to Oakland. Theres still a lot of history and animosity to live down to place more posteriors in seats. And, lower ticket prices may be somewhat offset by higher parking and concession prices.
How successful the team will be rekindling interest remains to be seen. Lost and nearly forgotten is the once much-ballyhooed local romance with the rogues of the gridiron who patronized local businesses and resided in Oakland, Alameda and other nearby cities before abandoning the East Bay for La-La Land.
Its doubtful that time and circumstances will ever enable such an intimate love story to flourish again, but this is the Raiders chance to rekindle the spark. Pro football in the East Bay is affordable again.
The teams lease at McAfee expires in five years. There is and has been speculation that owner Al Davis may move the franchise when that period expires. Telling fans it isnt so would help immensely. Whether the team stays or moves, however, may depend on how new ticket sales go and how avidly fans respond to the bouquet Davis and Trask tossed their way.
So far theyve offered victory-hungry patrons a half loaf — ticket prices as affordable here as anywhere in the NFL. Now the football half needs to be elevated to a comparable level of fan satisfaction. That means resurrecting the swagger and winning ways of the old Raiders that made them the bad boys of the gridiron and the darlings of the East Bay.
Rehiring Art Shell may be a step in that direction. But its a big challenge. The Raiders and their political hosts cant afford any more missteps.