the response has been mindblowing!!!!
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S.A. Saints tickets are a big, easy sell
Web Posted: 09/15/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Tom Orsborn
Express-News Staff Writer
Never did the Saints, nor city officials, imagine they'd be pleading with local football fans for patience in their pursuit of pro football tickets.
Yet, that was the situation on Wednesday after a feverish rush gobbled up 50,000 tickets for three Saints games in the Alamodome within eight hours after going on sale.
The demand for tickets was so heavy, computers used to process online requests crashed 15 minutes after sales began at 10 a.m.
Lines of customers snaked outside the Alamodome by late morning. The wait, compounded by initial unavailability of choice seats, irritated many in the crowd, thought to number about 500 at its peak.
"It's unbelievable the way the community has turned out," Assistant City Manager Roland Lozano said.
Said Alamodome director Mike Abington: "This reminds me of the response you might get for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones — or Garth Brooks."
"I hope they count right because I'm pretty pleased," Mayor Phil Hardberger said. "Apparently, it's been a hot ticket. It didn't surprise me, but it is certainly comforting to know we did that. Thinking it and seeing it are two different things."
Ticket windows at the Alamodome remained opened until 10 p.m. for late walk-up sales. By day's end, officials were stressing three points to the public:
None of the three Alamodome games has yet sold out. Tickets still are available at all price levels. And tickets are available for all seating locations.
That includes luxury suites. The Alamodome has 34 to offer, although area corporations pounced to fill out paperwork for suite purchases during a meeting Wednesday morning at La Cantera with Saints owner Tom Benson.
City leaders said the Saints weren't prepared to deal with the rush. As the high demand became obvious, extra staffers were put on phone banks and at ticket windows.
Much of the frustration expressed by fans concerned the limited availability of choice seats. Even those first in line at the Alamodome — one fan arrived at 3:30 a.m. — were told that only seats in the upper levels and end zone were still available.
Officials said the Saints' obligation to about 35,000 season-ticket holders in New Orleans complicated the issue of which seats to offer. Those season-ticket holders have until 10 days before the kickoff of each game to claim comparable seating in the Alamodome.
But a Saints official said the club will not put aside 35,000 Alamodome tickets for season-ticket holders. A source said the number of tickets will probably be significantly lower.
"We are off to a great start," said Saints marketing director Conrad "Connie" Kowal. "It was a very positive, overwhelming response."
Displaced by the Katrina disaster, the Saints moved their training headquarters to San Antonio 13 days ago. On Monday, three Saints home games — Oct. 2 against Buffalo, Oct. 16 against Atlanta and Dec. 24 against Detroit — were moved to the Alamodome.
Four others were moved to Tiger Stadium on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, La.
A portion of the Saints' sales staff was moved to Baton Rouge on Wednesday, further compounding problems with sales here.
Those complications didn't dampen the reaction of local officials.
"The response — and I know it sounds cliche — has been overwhelming," said Christian Archer, special assistant to Hardberger. "Are we going to sell out all three games at the dome? Damn right."
Archer said local fans should consider the Saints' plight.
"To have learned the schedule on Monday, and to see what the Saints have done since then, truly amazing," Archer said, "especially when you consider that a lot of these people have lost their homes and are wearing only T-shirts because they have no clothes."
Rumors that scalpers and ticket brokers were hoarding tickets were quickly dismissed.
"You can't compare this to anything we've ever done," said Jerome Cohen, owner of Best Tickets.
"They (the Saints) are doing something here that takes an entire season and compressing it into two weeks. Usually, they start selling tickets the day after their previous regular season ends. Their business has got to be brisk. They have to sell 65,000 seats in two weeks."
Both Cohen and John Binder, owner of Awesome Tickets, said demand for Saints tickets was very heavy.
"Our phones have been ringing off the hook since the announcement," Binder said. "We're getting calls from Austin, Corpus Christi, Laredo, the Valley."
Said Cohen: "There will be complete capacity for all games. I don't have any doubt for that, even the Christmas Eve game. San Antonio is an NFL town and this opportunity fits hand in hand with what people have been dreaming about."
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Alamo City out to sell self as being big-league enough for the NFL
Web Posted: 09/15/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Tom Orsborn
Express-News Staff Writer
The giants of San Antonio's corporate community Wednesday pledged their support to ticket sales and sponsorships for the displaced New Orleans Saints — and for a sales pitch designed to permanently place an NFL franchise in the Alamo City.
Summoned on short notice to a breakfast at La Cantera Country Club, high-ranking corporate officials — including representatives from Toyota, USAA, Washington Mutual, Valero and Clear Channel Communications — met with city leaders and voiced support for the belle of the breakfast, Saints owner Tom Benson.
The meeting, called late Tuesday by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, was expected to have about 50 participants, but instead drew nearly 200. The standing-room throng that turned out heard an emotional speech by former mayor Henry Cisneros about the need to bring an NFL team to San Antonio.
Cisneros told attendees that filling the Alamodome for Saints games "redoubles our mutual effort in building our community — and it is a financial affirmation of economic momentum."
City Councilman Chip Haass called Cisneros' speech "stirring — something out of 'Braveheart.'"
Said Haass: "I thought we were going to be charging through the walls in support of the cause."
While attendees didn't broach the sensitive subject of a permanent move by the Saints to San Antonio, the fresh possibilities of an NFL team moving to San Antonio in the near future provided a strong undercurrent.
Christian Archer, special assistant the mayor, said the city is ready to accept any challenge that arises from the city of Los Angeles as a rival relocation or expansion site.
The NFL continues to press for a team in Los Angeles, but that city has yet to put a viable plan in place.
"L.A. has had its chance," Archer said. "We are a city on the move."
Benson was accompanied to the meeting by his chief of administration, Arnold Fielkow, and by several members of the Saints' marketing staff. Fielkow explained the team needs 100 sponsorships from area corporations.
Those sponsorships, sources said, can cost up to $250,000 each. However, with the Saints scheduled to play only three of their home games in the San Antonio, Fielkow laid the groundwork for tailored sponsorships that take the short-season circumstances into account.
Attendees also discussed expanding the support campaign to include civic and business interests in Austin, Laredo, South Texas and Monterrey, Mexico.
Details of the discussions drew enthusiastic support.
H.B. Zachry, chairman of Zachry Construction, immediately signed up his company as a sponsor.
"This is a very special opportunity and it will require some possibility thinking," Zachry said. "Getting an NFL team will allow us to move the city up a notch."
Jon Gary Herrera, public affairs director for Time-Warner Cable, described the meeting as a "mini-pep rally."
"To have that kind of firepower in the room on such short notice, that was impressive," Herrera said. "You could feel the excitement in there."
"We got the leading CEOs in town," Mayor Phil Hardberger said, "and they were very enthusiastic."
Benson heaped praise on local leaders for supporting his team's temporary relocation to San Antonio and issued another plea for sellout crowds.
"My players can walk on water when they feel the support of the fans," Benson said.
Attendees were handed a bumper sticker that read "FAITH" with the letter "A" represented by the fleur-de-lis used in the Saints' logo.
"Things are moving very rapidly," County Judge Nelson Wolff said. "I think you will see all the companies take some kind of package."
"Clearly, the city, corporately, has come of age," Haass said. "I really do believe these blocks of tickets and sponsorships will be gobbled up very quickly."
Many civic leaders privately believe the Saints will make their stay in San Antonio permanent.
"Tom has told me in personal conversations that they have been well received here," Wolff said. "Their kids are in school. All of their staff people are feeling pretty good about being here. Their base is here. How long they will stay, we don't know. Regardless of what happens with the Saints, we just want to be in the position that the NFL knows we're a viable market."
"This is an important time for San Antonio to assert itself," said John T. Montford, senior vice president for SBC and chamber chairman. "We are obviously sensitive to the situation in New Orleans. And San Antonio, specifically, and Texas, as a whole, have done their part."
But that doesn't mean San Antonio can't look forward with new optimism to a future in the NFL.
"I expect there will be expansion down the road and we need to convince the NFL we are ready for it," Montford said.
Tom Glade, vice president and market manager for Clear Channel, praised the "overwhelming" response of fans to first-day ticket sales Wednesday.
The NFL, Glade says, believes San Antonio can pull in only 25,000 fans per game, not enough to support a franchise.
"The fact is even when San Antonio was one of the finalists in the past trying to get a franchise we had a smaller and different look than we do now," Glade said.
