The Bengals today announced that Sunday’s game against the Ravens is a sellout, only the second sellout of the season. This comes after the Bengals began a buy-one, get-one-free promotion for season-ticket holders. The sale was expected to run until next Saturday. The game will now be televised on the Bengals’ home market CBS affiliates. The Bengals could clinch a playoff spot with a win (THE DAILY). In Cincinnati, Joe Reedy reports some "club and single-seat tickets do remain, but the club has sold enough tickets to satisfy the league requirement." The Bengals had to "pick up at 34 percent to cover the visiting team’s share for the league" (CINCINNATI.com, 12/28).
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE: In Green Bay, Richard Ryman noted the Packers are “selling 30,000 additional shares because the initial offering of 250,000 shares is within a couple thousand of being sold out.” If the Packers “sell 280,000 shares, they will gross $70 million in sales.” The team said that that money, minus expenses, “will be used for the Packers’ $143 million expansion of Lambeau Field.” The sale “will continue until Feb. 29, 2012, or until shares are sold out.” Assuming that most sales “are for individual shares, the Packers will have tripled the number of shareholders” (PACKERSNEWS.com, 12/27).
JOINING THE WOLF PACK: In Minneapolis, John Vomhof Jr. reports the T'Wolves “already have sold more than 7,100 full-season tickets for 2011-12.” The number “tops 7,600 when including partial-season tickets.” Fans renewed “85 percent of their season tickets from last year and have bought more than 2,000 new season tickets.” Premium seating areas are "almost sold out for the first season since 2005-06." Sponsorship sales “also have been strong.” Total sales will be “down from a year ago due to the lockout-shortened 66-game season, but sales will increase on a prorated basis.” Ford has “come on board with a deal that includes a sponsorship of the team’s pregame and postgame shows on new flagship station" WCCO-AM. Minnesota-based Life Time Fitness Inc. expanded its deal to “sponsor the team’s media backdrop -- the first company to do so since Toyota in 2003-04.” The T'Wolves also expect changes to their “in-arena merchandise sales, which they’ll bring in-house for the first time in franchise history” (MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL BUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/23 issue).
LOOKING TO WIN FANS BACK: Palace Sports & Entertainment President Dennis Mannion last week said that there “isn't a lot of buzz among the ticket-buying public and corporate partners” of the Pistons since the lockout ended. Mannion: "The basic response has been 'win us back' across the board. It's not on them. They don't have to come. We have to start supplying reasons.” He added, “I think the goal is, when you leave, you have a good feeling, win, lose, draw; that you felt like you were treated hospitably, it wasn't a nightmare to get in and out of the place. When you were here, you were made to feel as though you belonged and you're really a customer” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 12/28).
