The 76ers have "sold a record 14,000-plus season tickets, more than quadruple" their '13 total, according to Frank Fitzpatrick of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. While seats will be "set aside for individuals and groups, the team anticipates sellouts at all 41 homes games." 76ers Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Chris Heck said that demand has been "so strong that for the first time ever, there’s a waiting list, one already several thousand fans deep." Heck: “The only way to get a season ticket is to be on a waiting list. There are only a few NBA teams like that and now we’re in that game." Fitzpatrick wrote Philadelphia has rarely "embraced its pro-basketball franchise with the passionate bear-hugs it routinely gives the Eagles and Phillies." But the 76ers "seem finally to have fulfilled their financial promise." By almost "any off-the-court measure," the franchise has "reached or is fast approaching an unprecedented level of popularity." Dunkin’ Donuts, NFI, and Chadds Ford Winery are "new sponsors to the team." Additionally, thanks to 76ers F Ben Simmons, there is "even a deal in the works with an Australian meat-pie company." Heck said that sponsorships "grew by another '30 to 40 percent' this offseason." In the '12-13 season, the club’s season-ticket total of 3,400 was "among the league’s worst." A source said sponsorships that season were "abysmal." 76ers Dir of Corporate Communications Lara Toscani Weems said of the team's growing sales and marketing staff, "We not only have the biggest staff but we have the highest retention rate. You’d ordinarily think the bigger the staff, the more turnover. But that hasn’t been the case here" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 10/13).
FAST PASS: In Philadelphia, David Murphy writes under the header, "How And Why The Sixers And 'The Process' Have Captured The City's Imagination." Heck said that by the start of the '16-17 season, the Sixers "sold 11,000 full season-ticket packages," up from 3,000 in '13-14 and 6,000 in '14-15. A month after the Sixers traded up to select G Markelle Fultz with the No. 1 pick, the team "capped its season ticket sales at 14,300 and started a waiting list." Heck: "I didn't think it was going to happen this quickly" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 10/16).
