Despite a multimillion-dollar ad campaign asking, "Are
You With Me?," combined with an opening weekend win over the
Eagles, "there has not been an overwhelming public display
of emotion" toward the Seahawks, according to Bob Sherwin of
the SEATTLE TIMES. Although the Seahawks sold 300 season
tickets after their win at Philly, as of Thursday the team
needed to sell about 14,000 tickets by 1:00pm today to
prevent a local blackout of their game against the
Cardinals. Seahawks President Bob Whitsitt: "We can only do
what we can do. We're running a lot of ads. We can't
complain about what the team did last week." Whitsitt said
he "hoped" to have 49,000 season tickets sold by the opener,
up from 42,000 last season (SEATTLE TIMES, 9/10).
LEAF SALES: In San Diego, Philip LaVelle reported that
Chargers season-ticket sales have increased this year, but
the city still must pay for unsold tickets due to a
"controversial attendance-driven rent credit." The Chargers
have sold 51,500 season tickets, up from 48,000 last year,
but "only about" 44,000 are general-admission tickets.
Chargers Dir of Business & Community Relations Richard
Ledford: "We're doing as well as you'd expect a team that
went 4 and 12 to do" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/10).
SILVER AND BLACKOUT: Oakland Football Marketing
Association President Richard Rogers expects "between"
40,000 and 45,000 for the Raiders' home opener against the
Giants. With capacity at 63,263, the game will be blacked
out locally (Ron Kroichick, S.F. CHRONICLE, 9/10).
OTHER NOTES: The Steelers have sent a letter to fans
"asking them to re-register their accounts" by September 30
so they will be on a list to buy PSLs "at a special season-
ticket holder discount." Steelers spokesperson Ron Wahl
said that the team hopes to raise $30-40M through PSL sales,
which will apply to 30,000-40,000 seats (Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-
REVIEW, 9/11).....In Detroit, "approximately" 17,500 tickets
remain unsold for the Bengals-Lions game, meaning it will
not be shown locally (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 9/11).
