FULL HOUSE'S FULL HOUSE? SONICS ARM GOES PRICE-SLASHING MAD

          Full House Sports & Entertainment (FHS&E), the business
     arm of the Sonics, "has slashed ticket prices and launched
     an aggressive advertising and marketing campaign to sell
     mini-season ticket packages" at KeyArena, according to M.
     Sharon Baker of the PUGET SOUND BUSINESS JOURNAL.  FHS&E
     President John Dresel, on the ticket cuts: "We lowered some
     as much as 50 percent.  In the upper bowl, we lowered them
     71 percent, and in the lower bowl 29 percent.  We felt we
     had to go backwards and lower the price point for the
     average fan."  Last year, the Sonics sold about 3,400 seven-
     game mini plans, and reports indicate that Sonics team
     profits, "once as high as" $10M in '96, "have sunk into the
     red, to a loss of nearly" $3M last year.  Dresel said, "This
     year, we should top out at about 10,500."  Meanwhile, Dresel
     "declined to reveal" the team's ad and marketing budget, but
     said FHS&E increased it by "well over $500,000 more than we
     normally spend" (PUGET SOUND BUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/10 issue).