Tigers ticket sales soaring after big trade

Friday, December 7, 2007

Tigers ticket sales soaring after big trade


In two days since making blockbuster deal, team has sold a record amount for the upcoming season.


Lynn Henning / The Detroit News

It was viewed as a number so celestial, as an accomplishment so difficult to replicate, the Tigers were delighted to have done the magical in 2007: Draw 3 million fans to Comerica Park.

That was before this week's trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. That was before the phones began jangling in a nonstop chorus of requests and demands for tickets to see the Tigers play in 2008.

"In my 12 years with the Tigers, I've never seen anything like it," Bob Raymond, Tigers vice president of marketing and ticket sales, said Thursday. "Since I got into the office yesterday, the phones have been ringing nonstop. It's almost 7 (p.m.) now, and the phones are still ringing."

The Tigers sold more than $600,000 worth of season tickets Wednesday. They followed with a $680,000 sales day Thursday.

The previous best, Raymond said, was the day after Pudge Rodriguez signed with the Tigers in 2004. Sales that day: $250,000, less than half of Wednesday's tally alone.

The Tigers played to 92 percent capacity at Comerica Park in 2007 and could conceivably approach a season sellout once single-game tickets go on sale March 1.

Any notion, however, that tickets will be gone before the first day of spring is absurd. Or, perhaps, as absurd as thoughts a week ago the Tigers would be trading for Cabrera, the power-hitting phenomenon formerly from Florida, and Willis, a 25-year-old left-hander who helps round out manager Jim Leyland's rotation.

"Let's put it this way," Raymond said. "We'll still face a challenge in having (tickets) available in April and early May, when weather can be an issue and when kids are still in school.

"But between Memorial Day and Labor Day, those are going to be big crowds, and it won't take long for those games to sell out."

The Tigers drew 3,047,124 customers in 2007, smashing their previous attendance record of 2,704,794, set in 1984, at Tiger Stadium where attendance was almost 10,000 seats greater than Comerica (41,070). A nearly 100 percent boost in season-ticket sales for 2007 was the foundation for last year's record-breaking audiences. The Tigers sold 9,800 season tickets in 2006, and sold 19,030 full-season equivalencies (full-season and partial-season packages equaling 19,030 season seats) in 2007.

Tigers owner Mike Ilitch said in September he would be open to creative ways of expanding Comerica Park's occupancy. The Tigers' season seating capacity, apart from standing-room-only and complimentary tickets that must be reserved for players' families and other special groups, is 3,321,000 -- nearly 275,000 more than the team's 2007 paid attendance.

"Oh yeah, we're working on that," Ilitch said of plans to increase Comerica Park's seats, "if we keep growing. I mean, there are a lot of different things you can do. We picked up quite a few seats in the bullpen (moving the right-field bullpen to a left-field void created by moving in Comerica Park's left-field fence)."

Dave Dombrowski, the Tigers president and general manager, said any expansion plans expedited by this week's trade and the ticket demand it has created could not be completed before Opening Day, which next season falls on an all-time early calendar date of March 31.

The Tigers also have seen a boost in inquiries about hospitality suites.

Good job fans! Keep buying tickets and we'll keep buying players!

Tickets will be HARD to come by this season.....

Tickets will be all sold out this season, especially from Memorial Day through September. Just like Cleveland used to be!

Glad I have Full Season Tickets! That's for Sure! GO TIGERS!

TIGER NATION!

I'll be looking at April games. Once the kids are outta school, probably best to watch on FSN!

I am sure there will be at least Standing Room Seats available during the summer!

U forget...I am OLD....might hafta sit sometime!

Might be some empty seats up in the nosebleed sections! Even when they have a sellout, there are always a few empty seats scattered in the upper levels

Sometimes I wish I could just work there. Then I wouldn't have to worry about seats!

Ilitch might have to expand Comerica Park!

At taxpayers expense

lol

Comerica Park gonna be rockin this summer

We'll be spilling over the top!

Oh Yeah!

laprimamirala wrote:

U forget...I am OLD....might hafta sit sometime!

Y'aint THAT old.....LOL!!

hmmm...to stand thru a whole game? Not sure about that one!

and I'm not overweight!

Congratulations!!
Maintaining weight is overrated!!

I'll bring my own chair!

Fans will be on the edge of their seats all season; Tigers = most exciting team in MLB

Get good pitchers now! Ones that can get through a season! (Justin, got any ideas?)

I think the Tigers will do so!

Ilitch wants that WS ring!

Eyes on the prize!

TIGERS ROCK!

ROCK TIGERS!!!

WE WANT a TITLE! SECOND BEST WON'T DO!!