In St. Petersburg, Marc Topkin writes that the Devil Rays "are sharply reducing the number of home games" shown on TV this season "in hopes of getting more people to come" to the ballpark. The team's 2000 TV schedule calls for "just" 56 of the 81 home games to be televised locally. By showing more away games, the team will show 131 games this season, the same number as last year. Devil Rays VP Rick Vaughn: "This came to us from our fans. We've had a number of fans ask us why we had so many games on television" (ST. PETE TIMES, 2/15)....The Portland (OR) Baseball Group has retained MA-based Game Plan LLC to assist the group in its efforts to attract an MLB team to the city (Game Plan). ATTENDANCE NOTES: In St. Paul, Charley Walters writes, "Despite their disappointing playoff finish and a price increase averaging 8 percent, the Vikings have had fewer than 200 season-ticket cancellations and still have 3,000 season-ticket requests on a waiting list." The Vikings finished the year with sales of 60,000 season tickets, up 17,000 from the previous year (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 2/15)....In Denver, Mike Klis writes that after finishing last in the NL West last year, the Rockies have seen a drop in ticket sales. Rockies Exec VP Keli McGregor "guessed" that by opening day, there would be an 8-15% drop in season- ticket sales: "Our season-ticket base is going to drop a little bit, obviously. Will it drop more than 15 percent? I don't think so. But ... in order for us to push 35,000 tickets again, we've got to play well" (DENVER POST, 2/15). NOTES: Prospective Grizzlies Owner Michael Heisley has hired former Pacers coach Dick Versace, former agent George Andrews, his brother Paul Andrews and Tom Peen to "advise him on basketball matters as he works toward official NBA approval next month" (Van. PROVINCE, 2/14)...CFL President & CEO Jeff Giles announced that an expansion team will be awarded to Ottawa in 2001. While there was "no set price" for a franchise fee, in the past year, the CFL has set a franchise fee of C$2M (OTTAWA SUN, 2/15).
