In Houston, Eric Berger reports that the Astros'
"string of regular-season sellouts" at 42,000-seat Enron
Field ended this weekend after one game, as "about" 39,000
fans attended the team's Saturday and Sunday games. Astros
execs "blamed" the non-sellouts on "other attractions" in
the area, including a Jazz-Rockets game starting Sunday "at
the same time." Astros VP/Sales & Marketing Pam Gardner, on
the non-sellouts: "Of course, we'd like to sell them all,
but we had great crowds this weekend and we're excited about
the numbers" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 4/11)....In Montreal, Mike
King profiled Montreal-based FieldTurf, which "has surpassed
about 40 other companies to mount a serious challenge" to
AstroTurf, a company that was "once considered the industry
standard in artificial turf." FieldTurf expects int'l sales
this year of "about" $44M and "plans to launch" an IPO
offering in September (Montreal GAZETTE, 4/10)....In
Philadelphia, Frederick Cusick reports that 80,000 people
attended events last night at the First Union Center (Heat-
76ers), Veterans Stadium (Mets-Phillies) and First Union
Spectrum (Korn), causing a "traffic anxiety attack of
historic proportions in South Philadelphia." But Cusick
writes that traffic problems "were less apparent" as the
events "broke up" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 4/11). The 47,115
fans that attended last night's Mets-Phillies game marked
the largest crowd for a Veterans Stadium opener since the
team drew 58,627 in '94 (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 4/11).
