ABL officials said they are "encouraged by trends such
as increased ticket revenue and season-ticket sales" even
though the league's average attendance of 3,979 fans is down
from the 4,335 it drew last year, according to Ryan White of
the Portland OREGONIAN. Officials, however, are "perplexed"
that the ABL "does not seem to have made any gains because
of the NBA lockout." New England leads the league with an
average of 8,305, but four of the nine teams -- Colorado
(2,873), Nashville (2,802), Columbus (2,683) and
Philadelphia (1,459) -- are drawing less than 3,000 fans.
ABL CEO Gary Cavalli: "We're a little concerned about
Colorado. That's a city that has had a decline this year
and, of course, Philadelphia has been really bad. We're
looking at trying to figure out what we can do there."
Cavalli said the league would not give tickets away this
year, noting that teams "are trying to keep" a ratio of 90%
paying customers to 10% admitted with complimentary tickets.
Portland GM Linda Weston said that "sticking to the league's
ratio" is one reason the Power has had a 15% increase in
revenue this year from '97-98, when they were second in the
ABL in ticket revenue. But the team hasn't felt as big of
an "impact" as it had hoped from the NBA lockout. Rodger
Rickard, who owns the operating rights to the Power: "I'm
disappointed we haven't had many of the NBA ticket holders
convert themselves into ABL fans. In fact, it seems to be
tough to get them to games" (Portland OREGONIAN, 12/9).
REIGN DANCE: In Seattle, Melanie Jackson wrote that
Reign GM Jim Weyermann, whose team is the top-grossing
franchise in "single-ticket" revenue, "is happy to see" the
increased earnings, though he wouldn't release any numbers.
Overall, ABL season-ticket revenues are up almost 35% from
last year, while season-ticket numbers are up over 22%.
Based on current sales, the ABL forecasts a 50% increase in
ticket revenues this season from last (SEATTLE TIMES, 12/9).
