The MLB Giants Thursday launched a waiting list for season tickets at AT&T Park. The defending World Series champs have sold more than 27,700 full season tickets. The newly created Premium On-Deck Wait List will give fans the opportunity to secure season tickets as they become available. Fans must pay a non-refundable $500 per-seat deposit to secure a spot on the wait list, which also offers access to pre-sales for individual, group and luxury suite tickets and coupons for Giants merchandise. The waiting list is the first for the Giants since the ’07 season, when they hosted the MLB All-Star Game (THE DAILY). Giants President & COO Larry Baer Thursday revealed that the team has "already sold 2.6 million total tickets, an increase of around 50 percent from a year ago" (MLB.com, 3/24). The Giants had about 21,000 season-ticket holders last season, and VP/Ticket Sales Russ Stanley said that "about 97 percent of those people renewed for this season." That is the "highest renewal rate since the team moved" into AT&T Park in '00. Baer: "It's been, quite frankly, beyond our expectations." In S.F., Eric Young reported the Giants also revealed that "many major sponsors have renewed and some new sponsors have signed deals with the club." New sponsors include Salesforce, United Airlines, The Sports Authority, Tiffany & Co. and Box.net, an online file sharing company. Renewals included Bank of America, Levi Strauss & Co., Genentech, Safeway, Toyota, StubHub, See’s Candies and Re/Max. In addition, "retail sales have been strong for the club." Sales of Giants branded merchandise "sold from the club-owned stores have tripled from the same period last year" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 3/24).
IT'S SHOWTIME! Showtime announced Thursday that it will air a 30-minute sneak preview of its forthcoming documentary series, "The Franchise: A Season With The San Francisco Giants," on April 13 at 9:30pm to coincide with the start of the MLB season. The new one-hour series will premiere July 13 (Showtime). Showtime President of Entertainment David Nevins "had hopes that the docuseries would premiere with an hourlong episode around Opening Day in early April, with regular episodes broadcast during the second half of the season." He added, "It’s been a long haul putting this show together" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 3/24).
