Empty Seats

The woes of the $22-billion U.S. live event business can be boiled down to one statistic: 20% to 40% of seats for many concerts and sports games go unsold. A remedy to fill some of those seats may be reverse scalping: A market in which fans can bid below the ticket's face value, a sort of Priceline for live events. That, at any rate, is the idea behind ScoreBig, an online ticketing service based in Hollywood that has about 500,000 tickets for sale on any given day ? enough to fill 10 Yankee Stadiums.

On the wall in the Pasadena headquarters of the Goldstar ticket service is a concert poster from a decade ago, framed with the will call list showing the names of every Goldstar customer who bought tickets to the show. Both of them. There were just two customers for the first event the fledgling ticket company offered, a dramatic contrast with the 3 million who are now Goldstar members. Many of them are drawn by the 50% discount that Goldstar Events Inc. routinely offers on tickets to rock and pop concerts, plays, traveling circuses, Dodgers and Angels baseball games and other sporting and live entertainment events.

On the wall in the Pasadena headquarters of the Goldstar ticket service is a concert poster from a decade ago, framed with the will call list showing the names of every Goldstar customer who bought tickets to the show. Both of them. There were just two customers for the first event the fledgling ticket company offered, a dramatic contrast with the 3 million who are now Goldstar members. Many of them are drawn by the 50% discount that Goldstar Events Inc. routinely offers on tickets to rock and pop concerts, plays, traveling circuses, Dodgers and Angels baseball games and other sporting and live entertainment events.

The word "gouging" rolls off the tongue with equal ease when discussing pro wrestling and Olympic ticket prices. IBM is not the only famous three-letter, massive corporation that seeks huge profits. Right there is the IOC. That stands for the International Olympic Committee, which awarded its every-four-year revenue bonanza to a five-letter corporation, LOCOG, which stands for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. The big ruckus around here Monday morning was over all the empty seats people are seeing as they watch events on TV. For veteran Olympic observers, this is about as new as the hammer throw.

They say there is no peace in the playoffs. They say the best thing about baseball's postseason is that, for three splendid weeks in October, there is nowhere to run and no room to breathe. They are wrong. On Friday night, I found it. Turner Field, sixth inning, aisle 244, row 8 just above left-center field during the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves. No peace? I had the entire 21-seat row to myself. Nowhere to run?

American Airlines on Wednesday cut fares on all of its routes--domestic and foreign--escalating a round of discounts in the industry that are designed to lure travelers back into the air after months of slow traffic because of the recession and the Persian Gulf War. American's action followed an earlier announcement by Delta Air Lines that it would cut 20% off one-way and round-trip fares usually purchased by business travelers.

Across America, audiences shied away from live theater and performance halls for much of September, then crept back in October, but seldom in large enough numbers to make up for all those lost ticket sales. In a recent survey aimed at gauging how performing arts organizations are coping with a jittery public, nationwide presenters and producers of music, drama and dance could agree on that much.

The Chicago Bulls got their first taste of life without Michael, Scottie and Dennis, losing to the Indiana Pacers, 79-71, Sunday at Chicago in the NBA's opening preseason game following the end of the lockout. Reggie Miller, whose past included spirited physical and verbal confrontations with Michael Jordan, and Rik Smits scored 12 points each to lead the Pacers.

The next time you find yourself creeping along a freeway in bumper-to-bumper traffic, consider this possibility: "We now have enough front seats in the nation's automobiles to carry the entire American population at the same time, plus enough back seats to carry everyone from the Soviet Union as well. The trouble is that these seats are being driven around empty." That was the decidedly contrary message Sunday from Melvin M.

AS travelers shopping for online airfares know, some low-fare carriers' tickets can be booked only on their own websites. The only way to book a Southwest Airlines ticket online, for instance, is at www.southwest.com. Websites such as Travelocity and Expedia do not list Southwest's fares for comparison with airlines such as United or American. And travel search engines such as SideStep and Kayak, which scan a range of sites, don't include Southwest's schedules and prices.

Clayton Kershaw leads the National League in strikeouts and innings pitched. Only Ian Kennedy, who pitches for a first-place team, has as many victories. Only Johnny Cueto, who has pitched almost 60 fewer innings, has a lower earned-run average. Only Roy Halladay has pitched more complete games. But only 29,764 fans were said to be in the stands Monday at Dodger Stadium to witness Kershaw's latest masterpiece, a 4-1 complete-game victory over the San Diego Padres -- and based on the numerous blocks of empty seats, that attendance figure appeared to be grossly inflated.

All those empty seats at the Women's World Cup semifinals Wednesday stirred visions of Dodger Stadium. … The play of Abby Wambach and Team USA did not. … ESPN's Ian Darke , alluding to the last time the U.S. won this competition, said the Americans hope to "party like it's 1999," which surely brought a frown from goaltender Hope Solo . … "To be honest," she says, "we're tired of hearing about '99. It's time for a...

Chavez Ravine, the little kingdom on the hill overlooking Los Angeles, was once the playground of the gods -- Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Mike Piazza -- and home to some of baseball's most loyal fans. Today, fans are fleeing in droves. Through Sunday, attendance was down 7,013 per game, 196,367 for the season. In a tough economy, nearly half the Major League teams have suffered attendance drops. But nothing like the Dodgers' slide. On average, league attendance has fallen 302. The Angels, for example, are down 576 fans per game.

Hoping to boost concert attendance in a hobbled economy, Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment Inc., is joining with the popular online deals site Groupon to launch a discount ticket site for live events. Dubbed GrouponLive, the service, expected to launch in June, is aimed at easing both the perennial problem of filling empty seats at concerts and sporting events, including last year's big drop in attendance that prompted numerous cancellations and left promoters with a hefty number of unsold tickets toward the end of summer.

It started with the starting lineup, Don Mattingly forgoing the usual manager's trot to home plate, instead running down the third base line to shake hands with all the reserves and club personnel who had been introduced before him. I've never seen that before, have you? It closed with the chilling closer, Jonathan Broxton giving up a liner into the left-field seats but somehow managing to trudge off the mound in possession of both his skin and a save. It feels as though I've never seen that before, either.

The woes of the $22-billion U.S. live event business can be boiled down to one statistic: 20% to 40% of seats for many concerts and sports games go unsold. A remedy to fill some of those seats may be reverse scalping: A market in which fans can bid below the ticket's face value, a sort of Priceline for live events. That, at any rate, is the idea behind ScoreBig, an online ticketing service based in Hollywood that has about 500,000 tickets for sale on any given day ? enough to fill 10 Yankee Stadiums.

Some of the mourners wore black--wetsuits--and paddled their surfboards behind a weathered outrigger in a slow, prone processional. Two of the canoe's six seats were empty. They were vacant in homage to John Deblin and Scott Sullenger, who had shoved off Jan. 3 for a trip in the channel that ended with Deblin's death from hypothermia and Sullenger's presumed death after he swam toward shore for help and was never found.

LL Cool J, no gangsta rapper he, came to Southern California, heartland of gang-inspired rap, and got dissed with a big orange salute. It wasn't a gang salute. In fact, if there were any gang members present Saturday night at the Celebrity Theatre, they were on good behavior. Other than the usual delays that stretched three acts playing two hours of music into a 3 1/2-hour marathon, the evening went off without a problem.

I am just so proud of our terrible team. I can't believe I almost skipped this contest to go to the Oregon- USC game. Talk about inspiring. As crummy as the UCLA Bruins have been this season, they deserve so much credit for not getting blown out again. They can actually tell their friends this week ? because most everyone wasn't at the Rose Bowl on Saturday ? they came within a touchdown and a two-point conversion of tying Arizona. Arizona goes home thinking it probably lost, beating a crummy team like UCLA by so little.

at Atlanta 39, Cincinnati 32: Carson Palmer, who pushed for the Bengals to sign Terrell Owens in off-season, wonders if they can get Roddy White (201 yards receiving) instead. at Baltimore 37, Buffalo 34 (OT): Ravens spot Buffalo 14-point lead and allow 505 yards and four touchdowns to 30th-ranked offense just to see if winless Bills could still lose. at Kansas City 42, Jacksonville 20: Can anyone name Jaguars' backup quarterback who was forced to start? If you guessed Todd Bouman, thanks for reading, Todd's mom. Pittsburgh 23, at Miami 22: Upon review, instant replay clearly showed Steelers fumbled before end zone but gave ball back to them because instant replay wasn't clear.