The "slide" in Hawks ticket sales has been "stemmed," with
the team having already exceeded last year's sales advance six
weeks before the start of their '97, according to Jeffrey Denberg
of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. Hawks Exec VP Lee Douglas says the
club has sold "slightly more" than 3,900 full season tickets, the
same number reached on the first weekend of the '95-96 season.
Also, 800 21-game packages, as opposed to about 700 by last
year's opener, have already been purchased. Douglas says the
team's ad campaign and the addition of Dikembe Mutombo have had a
"strong impact" on sales (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 9/18).
GOLDEN STATE UPDATE: In San Francisco, Dwight Chapin of the
S.F. EXAMINER reports that renewal rates for Warriors season
tickets are "down significantly" since the team said it will play
in San Jose this season while the Oakland Coliseum Arena is
remodeled. Unnamed sources cited by Chapin estimate "only
slightly more" than 60% of 13,000 season ticket holders have
renewed. Warriors Dir of Marketing Jim Rogers said the team is
still "in the process of reseating people," but admitted this
off-season has been "totally different than anything we've ever
been involved in." Rogers: "We didn't expect we'd have renewals
in the high 90 percent range that we'd had in the past. We're
not particularly upset at this point" (S.F. EXAMINER, 9/17).
