Post by TheShadow on Aug 11, 2006 19:21:50 GMT -5
www.sfgate.com
Tom FitzGerald, Chronicle Staff Writer
The 49ers and the Raiders say their season tickets are being renewed at a higher rate than they were last year.
In the Raiders' case, the bar was set exceedingly low, partly because of the dreaded personal seat licenses that were dissolved in the offseason when the club took over its own marketing and ticket-selling functions from the now-defunct Oakland Football Marketing Association.
But neither team has revealed how many season tickets it has sold in the wake of symmetrically awful 4-12 seasons on both sides of the bay.
"We don't get into specifics on our tickets,'' 49ers spokesman Aaron Salkin said. "They're being renewed at a record number rate." They've been sold out every season since 1981. They have not had a home game blacked out on local television since early that season.
In the most recent figures made available by the 49ers, they sold 59,694 season tickets in 2004.
Both their preseason home games -- tonight against Chicago and Sept. 1 against San Diego -- are sold out, the 49ers said.
Raiders Chief Executive Amy Trask said she would provide information on sales after the exhibition season. In the meantime, she said, "the response from our fans has been tremendous.
"They have been very enthusiastic about the opportunity to work directly with the team for the first time since we relocated (from Los Angeles) in 1995. The feedback we're getting is that they're absolutely delighted.''
The marketing association was the organization that the city of Oakland and Alameda County set up to handle ticket sales. The idea was to maximize the city's and county's share of the sales of tickets and PSLs. Instead, following inaccurate projections of how many PSLs would be purchased, fans stayed away because of the costs, the team's poor performance and the association's heavily criticized customer service.
Last year about 29,000 PSLs and season tickets were sold at the 63,132-seat McAfee Coliseum.
If the Raiders don't sell out at least some of their home games this year, they won't be able to pin some of the blame the marketing association or public officials, as in years past.
"We have substantially increased the sales force,'' Trask said. "The prior regime didn't have an emphasis on sales and service. We have both.''
She wouldn't promise an end this year to the blackouts that have plagued the Raiders since they returned to Oakland.
"The situation we took over on Jan. 1 was abysmal,'' she said. "It will take quite a bit of time to correct that situation.''
Besides not having to pay for seat licenses, Raiders season-ticket holders were given first crack at individual game tickets.
"We are significantly ahead at this point of where we were last year,'' Trask said.
The Raiders host the 49ers in an exhibition Aug. 20 at 5 p.m. Oakland's other preseason home game is five nights later against Detroit.