Season Tickets

In the wake of a season in which the Dodgers played to a half-empty stadium, the team announced Monday that the price of almost every season ticket would be reduced next season, some by as much as 60%. The Dodgers will cut prices for mini-plans and single-game tickets as well, said David Siegel, senior director of ticket sales. Those prices will be announced at a later date, he said. The Dodgers sold 2.9 million tickets last season, their smallest total in a non-strike year since 1992.

For more than a half century, few in this town have loved and lived the Lakers like Joe Smith. The former record mogul has four season seats on the baseline next to the Lakers bench. He has held those seats since the team arrived in Los Angeles. He has become as much of a fixture under the basket as the ballboys and Laker girls. No single ticket holder has endured longer, and certainly no single fan has invested more. For 54 years, Joe Smith has loved the Lakers graciously, gratefully and unconditionally.

Did Frank McCourt's decision to sell the Dodgers spur fans to sign up for season tickets? That's debatable. But the team says reduced prices did the trick. The Dodgers' season-ticket sales are up 30% from this time last year, according to a person familiar with the team's business but not authorized to discuss it publicly. David Siegel, the Dodgers' senior director of ticket sales, said there had been "no discernible bump" in sales in the days after last week's announcement that McCourt would sell the team.

PHOENIX  - There's a massive painting hanging in a hallway of Dan Haren's home in Irvine that shows the pitcher, mid-windup, in the uniforms of the first four major league teams for which he played. It was meant to be a memento of an All-Star career. But it was outdated shortly after the paint dried. "Little did I know," said Haren, who has pitched for two more teams since hanging the artwork in his home two seasons ago. This spring he's wearing the blue script of the Dodgers, who signed him to a one-year, $10-million free-agent contract in November.

Your browser does not support iframes. It appears Dodgers fans are a forgiving bunch, or at least are all in on the team's new ownership. Team President Stan Kasten said in a Dodgers video that season-ticket sales continue into uncharted territory, are already at 27,000 and are going north of that figure. He said last year season tickets at the beginning of the season were about 17,000. “In my experience, I've never seen a jump like this,” Kasten said. Under Peter O'Malley, season tickets were capped at 26,000.

The Dodgers' opening-day payroll in 2013 could be double what it was last season, but the pricing structure for season tickets at Dodger Stadium doesn't appear to be changing significantly. Season-ticket prices for about 8,000 seats in the 56,000-seat ballpark will increase, but prices for more than 10,000 of them will go down. About 38,000 will remain the same. The price changes that occurred were largely the result of the reclassification of seats, according to David Siegel, the senior director of ticket sales.

When the Dodgers announced late Friday that they had put an "extremely limited" number of season tickets on sale, they did not say they had imposed significant price increases on nearly every one of those tickets. The Dodgers now are charging as much as 140% more than the season price set last fall. They increased the price in each of the 20 ticket categories made available Friday, and by at least 50% in 10 of them. David Siegel, the Dodgers' vice president of ticket sales, said the new prices reflected what he called "unprecedented" demand for tickets.

The Cincinnati Reds say they have sold 15,167 season tickets for 1988, breaking the record of 15,166 set in 1980. The total is nearly 2,000 more than the number of season tickets sold during all of the 1987 season, Reds spokesman Jon Braude said. Sales of season tickets will continue into the early part of the season, which starts with an April 4 home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Anaheim Arena is not scheduled to open for two years and no teams have committed to play there, but its operators say they will soon begin selling luxury suites and season tickets to whatever events are held there. Ogden Entertainment Services, hired by the city to build and operate the $103-million arena, recently opened a marketing office, and its sales and marketing director says a strategy for selling the suites and tickets is being developed.

In the first three weeks after signing free-agent first baseman Mo Vaughn to a six-year, $80-million contract, the Angels sold 654 season tickets, about half for the full season and half for 21-game packages. All this without benefit of a marketing campaign, which isn't scheduled to start until next month. On the day after Thanksgiving, the first business day after Vaughn signed and a day on which the Angels traditionally sell no tickets, they sold 25 season tickets.

 OK, Gardena Serra Coach Scott Altenberg probably isn't going to receive an award from the UCLA alumni association. They know he's a UCLA grad. They know his father, Kurt, caught one of most famous game-winning touchdown passes in UCLA history to beat USC, 20-16, in 1965. But they can't understand why another top Serra player, Adoree' Jackson, picked USC over UCLA on Wednesday. “As a fan, I'm disappointed,” Altenberg said, “but my job as a coach is to help them make the best decision for them.” Altenberg told Jackson not to tell him where he was going before his announcement, and for good reason.

It's baseball season. For the sports fan in Los Angeles, the change of seasons used to be as reliable as nature. After the Super Bowl, we would turn our attention to basketball, to anticipate a championship run from UCLA, then from the Lakers. In June, when Kobe and his friends were done for the season, all eyes would turn to baseball. Not this year. The Lakers already are done for this season - though, even in their abysmal state, they are still more compelling than the Clippers.

When the Dodgers announced late Friday that they had put an "extremely limited" number of season tickets on sale, they did not say they had imposed significant price increases on nearly every one of those tickets. The Dodgers now are charging as much as 140% more than the season price set last fall. They increased the price in each of the 20 ticket categories made available Friday, and by at least 50% in 10 of them. David Siegel, the Dodgers' vice president of ticket sales, said the new prices reflected what he called "unprecedented" demand for tickets.

Two days after announcing they had suspended sales of season tickets, the Dodgers said late Friday that they would put what they called "an extremely limited" number of additional season seats on sale Saturday. If all those seats are sold, the Dodgers would surpass their record of more than 31,000 season tickets, set last year. If the supply of newly available seats is exhausted, the Dodgers plan to establish a waiting list, said David Siegel, the team's vice president of ticket sales.

If you watch Clayton Kershaw pitch a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium this year, you can pretty much forget about saving your game ticket. The Dodgers are just about doing away with paper tickets this season. No longer will season-seat holders get a shipment of tickets. Instead, those fans will display bar codes to enter Dodger Stadium, either by printing them at home or scanning them directly from a smartphone. “This is a real fan enhancement,” said Lon Rosen, the Dodgers' executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

With renewals from virtually all of their ticket holders, the Dodgers have suspended sales of new season seats. Tickets for individual games go on sale Friday on the team website and Saturday at Dodger Stadium, with prices ranging from $10 to $150. The Dodgers divide individual games into four categories -- based on projected popularity - and price them accordingly. For example, a seat on the reserved level could cost $45 on a bobblehead night, $35 for an April fireworks night, and $25 for a midweek day game.

The Mission Viejo Vigilantes minor league baseball team, which moved from Long Beach in January, has sold about 500 season seats, General Manager Paula Pyers said Wednesday. Single-game seats won't go on sale until season-ticket sales reach 2,000, said Pyers, adding, "We'll let the demand continue." As part of the deal to move to Mission Viejo, the Western Baseball League team will play at Saddleback College's refurbished field, which has a seating capacity of 3,400.

Gardena Serra Coach Scott Altenberg is feeling the heat. His late father, Kurt , was a hero for UCLA football fans, catching the 52-yard winning touchdown pass from Gary Beban to defeat USC, 20-16, in the 1965 USC-UCLA game. Altenberg continues to have season tickets to UCLA games, but his Serra players have been picking USC lately. Robert Wood, Marqise Lee and George Farmer have ended up with the Trojans from Serra, leaving Altenberg feeling a little uneasy at Bruin games. Now UCLA is again trying to land several Serra standouts, including defensive back Adoree' Jackson and linebacker Dwight Williams.

The following message was recently sent by Lakers owner/executive Jeanie Buss to season-ticket holders: Dear Lakers Season Seat Holders, As we embark on our first season since the passing of Dr. Jerry Buss, the brilliant guiding hand of the Lakers for 34 years, we are confident that the template he created will serve us well as we move our organization forward. While last season ended in disappointment, that will not stop us from the goal of seeking to put the best talent possible together and strive for excellence both on and off the court, with the ultimate goal of being in the championship hunt again.  And although we weren't able to fulfill Dr. Buss' dream of seeing us win our 17th NBA title, I am confident that when that day comes, he will be watching over us with pride.