RAVENS FANS BUY CLOSE TO 90% OF SEASON TICKETS

     The Ravens have sold nearly 90% of the season tickets
available for their debut season, "despite above average prices
and an unpopular licensing requirement," according to Jon Morgan
of the Baltimore SUN.  Wednesday was the deadline for first-day
priority and all applications received by then will be randomly
sorted by a computer and assigned seats. Applications received
after that will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Since Wednesday, the team has processed 50,118 tickets with
additional requests left to finish.  That represents about 88% of
the 57,000 season tickets available for next season.  Ticket
prices averaged just over $400 for a 10-game plan along with a
$100 deposit per ticket on a seat license for the team's new
stadium. Morgan writes Ravens officials, "who had been privately
anxious in the past few weeks," were happy with the news.  Team
spokesperson Kevin Byrne said they figured 30,000-40,000 sales a
"respectable showing" (Baltimore SUN, 6/14).