Whew..who da thunk it?

[RaiderBeast]

In the words of the 49ers' top marketing executive, many of the team's fans have a "once-in-a-generation opportunity'' to buy season tickets.

A less-biased view is that the team's famed waiting list isn't what it used to be.

During the 49ers' heyday in the 1980s and much of the '90s, the waiting list was variously reported by the club to include 17,500 or 20,000 names. Because each of those people was presumed to be ready to buy at least two season tickets, the club believed it had a huge reservoir of customers in case those who held the 65,000-70,000 season tickets dropped out.

Those days are long gone. And so may be the days of every 49ers home game being on local television.

In the realm of sports marketing, a club's success is usually driven by how the team did last season, or the last couple of seasons. So if you're the New England Patriots, you're fat and happy. If you're the 49ers, you're eating shoe leather.

The 49ers say they sold 59,694 season tickets in 2004 and slightly more than 90 percent of them -- or roughly 54,000 -- have renewed for this season despite the team's 2-14 record last year.

Since the capacity of Monster Park is 68,277, the 49ers probably will have to sell about another 11,000 seats per game in individual game tickets or additional season tickets in order to maintain their run of 211 consecutive sellouts.

Individual game tickets are expected to go on sale around Aug. 1, the club says. Last year the 49ers sold an average of 3,600 single-game tickets per game, but officials optimistically say they don't expect to have that number available this year.

If 65,000 seats are sold, that probably would be enough to assure that the television broadcasts of home games are not blacked out in the Bay Area. But if the 49ers tank again, the schedule may not provide much help to prevent their first blacked-out games since 1981.

Just two visiting teams, Indianapolis and Seattle, had winning records last year, and late-season games against Arizona and Houston figure to be especially hard to sell out.

It's possible that a local TV affiliate or sponsor might buy up a few thousand remaining tickets, although that didn't happen last year on the few occasions when the 49ers barely filled the stadium with late ticket surges.

That a blackout is even a possibility signals how far the organization has sagged in recent years. Following back-to-back losing seasons under Dennis Erickson after the strange sacking of Steve Mariucci and amid the plummeting public perception of owners Dr. John and Denise DeBartolo York, what used to be a goldmine has become a land mine.

The 49ers' season-ticket community may be shrinking for reasons other than losing seasons and unpopular management.

"A lot of hardcore fans who have been with them for years are dying,'' said Laureen Burke, 52, of Petaluma.

She decorates her office at the Veterans Administration Hospital in San Francisco with 49ers memorabilia because her husband, a diehard Redskins fan, frowns on such things at home. Despite her loyalty, she admits that for 49ers fans, "Things are looking pretty grim.''

Dr. York has taken some major steps to try to turn the club around. In addition to hiring Mike Nolan as head coach and swallowing what was left of Erickson's contract, York has revamped his marketing department. That move began last summer with the hiring of former Houston Texans executive David Peart as vice president for sales and marketing. Then came Michael Williams, a burly former University of North Carolina football player who left the Anaheim Mighty Ducks of the National Hockey League to become the 49ers' director of marketing.

Listening to Peart, 42, and Williams, 37, describe the season-ticket sales and the club's new advertising campaign, it's clear that, in the marketing department, never is heard a discouraging word.

Peart said the renewal rate of season tickets was "better than we expected . . . coming off a 2-14 season. There are other teams in the NFL that are sub-.500 clubs that are renewing at 84 or 82 percent. So we really think it speaks in a powerful way to the loyalty of our fan base, the value of our season tickets, that we would be able to renew at over 90 percent."

He said he considers the club's marketing approach not as a desperate effort to drum up support for a downtrodden team but as a chance to embrace new fans.

"We haven't had that opportunity in a while,'' he said. "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for fans in the Bay Area, for fans to buy tickets for the first time literally in 25 years.''

Williams puts this cheery company strategy in a slightly different way.

"Frankly this is like a good stock,'' he said. "This is the time you want to get involved. To be perfectly honest, this is why I wanted to get involved. To come in and be part of a storied franchise, from a marketer's perspective it was the opportunity of a lifetime.''

Maybe that "stock'' will be a good buy despite the hefty price -- $640 per season ticket plus $250 for parking at the 10 games, two of which are exhibitions. On the other hand, buying that stock might be considered irrational exuberance. The team may well be relying on a rookie quarterback, unproven receivers and a shaky offensive line, not to mention a first-time head coach.

What the 49ers' marketers are trading in, at least for the time being, is not team performance but faith. For the first time in years they are pouring big bucks into advertising, and their new $2 million campaign dwells heavily on the word "faithful,'' which has been linked with 49er fans through good times and bad.

"Faithful is tailgating at training camp,'' reads a bus-shelter sign.

In a TV spot, a 49er ticket taker (played by veteran character actor Charles Napier) asks a fan, "Do you believe?''

"Believe what?"

"Do you believe one draft pick can change everything? Do you believe in miracles, that a team can go from 2-14 to the Super Bowl in two years? Do you believe that history can repeat?"

"I believe."

"Welcome, friend.''

That "one draft pick'' isn't named. Nor was he named in the full-page newspaper ads of April 25 that pictured a 49ers helmet and read: "In 25 years, you'll want to say, 'I saw his first game.' "

Some veteran players say privately that the ads are putting too much pressure on quarterback Alex Smith, the top overall pick in the NFL Draft. But Peart said, "Those ads are intended to pull at the optimist's heart, if you will. We did not specifically say, 'You'll want to see Alex Smith.' That could have been any of the (draft) picks, even Mike Nolan.''

Perhaps, but most readers undoubtedly thought of Smith.

Peart stresses the connection between the coming season to the beginning of the Bill Walsh era. "If you asked anybody in the Bay Area, 'If you could turn back the clock 25 years, and you could buy season tickets for the 49ers, would you do it?' -- no question, they'd do it in a heartbeat,'' Peart said.

Nolan, like Walsh in 1979, arrived in the wake of a 2-14 season. In Walsh's third season, the 49ers won the Super Bowl. But it's unrealistic to expect Smith to be the second coming of Joe Montana. Moreover, even if Dr. York were as free with his money as former owner Eddie DeBartolo, he operates under salary-cap constraints that would have exasperated DeBartolo.

Changing coaches "was a very powerful sign that John York was going to do what it takes to be successful,'' Peart said. "Folks recognize the investment that was made to make that happen, the commitment that was made to completely change directions after last season. You can't kid anybody: 2-14 is not acceptable. Changes had to be made.''

It's going to take a lot more than a coaching change to convince many fans that York can restore the glory of the 49ers.

"The Yorks need to get out of the game and sell the team to an owner who will bring back the 49ers to the status they had with Eddie,'' said Amy Dawson, 38, of Vallejo.

The coaching change didn't assuage Cisco Oasay, 42, of Suisun, who dropped his season tickets after a run of more than two decades.

"With no appreciable free-agent pickups, a first pick of a quarterback who will get beat up with no offensive-line protection, and the incessant nepotism in the front office, it was too much to bear," Oasay said. "The $1,280 for two tickets, plus another $250 to park, to go to a poor stadium with overpriced food -- it just isn't worth the money and time.''

Leigh Cambra, 32, of Palo Alto said her family is done, too, after more than 30 years of season-ticket loyalty. "We had them through some bad years in the '70s, but we do not trust the current ownership to turn things around. . . . We are now excited about the things we can do with the money we are saving,'' Cambra said.

Many season ticket-holders were surprised this offseason when 49ers personnel called to offer them a chance to buy more season tickets. They wondered what had happened to the supposedly sturdy waiting list.

Peart said the club switched in November from what he called a "free model'' waiting list to one in which fans now have to pay an annual fee of $25. Other teams charge people from $10 to $150 in annual membership fees to stay on their waiting lists, Peart said.

Peart claimed the old list was unwieldy and out of date. Many people couldn't be reached. Some were dead. Others were no longer interested in buying tickets, possibly because of the team's decline. "Basically, we cleansed that list,'' he said.

The current list, according to Peart, consists of 3,000 people who turned down season tickets this year because they didn't like the location of the seats. Next year, they won't get first crack at the season tickets that are relinquished. That opportunity will go to current season ticket-holders who want to upgrade.

Peart denied that the steep falloff in the size of the waiting list indicates a dramatic downturn in interest. He cited a "data capture project'' that the club did last year in which a list was compiled of 40,000 people who "attended games and specifically said they would be interested in buying tickets if they were available.'' He said that list "is closer to the old-style waiting list that a lot of teams employ.''

Those fans aren't willing to put any money down, but Peart said, "We could easily accumulate a list of 40,000 names on an annual basis. We think there's a tremendous appetite for tickets.''

The 49ers are installing a new scoreboard with a video screen twice the size of the old one, along with an improved audio system. In the meantime, they are working on plans for a new stadium. Where it will be built and what the financing will be remain mysteries.

Asked if it was fair to assume that personal seat licenses will be needed to fund the stadium, Peart said, "I don't think it's safe to assume anything.'' At the same time, he said, "We are investigating every way for us to generate revenue so we can afford to build our fans a brand new stadium.

[RaiderBeast]

NFC West Standings

Team W L T
Seattle 13 3 0
St. Louis 6 10 0
Arizona 5 11 0
49ERS 4 12 0

[RaiderBeast]

Giants co-owner, Wellington Mara, spoke out in anger over the settlement that the NFL reached with former 49ers executives Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark over their alleged violation of the salary cap in 1997. Under the terms of the deal, Policy was fined $400,000 and Clark was fined $200,000. The 49ers will also have to pay a $300,000 fine and give up a 5th round draft choice in 2001 and a 3rd round choice in 2002.

Mara apparently became upset after Policy refused to admit any wrongdoing in the matter. Mara has since accused Policy of lying to the NFL Management Council Executive Committee about the allegations. Mara issued a statement in which he said, "of all those present, not one believed what [Policy] said." Mara added that the group then agreed that Policy "should give a deposition under oath as soon as possible," but Policy "declined to be sworn in and instead began negotiating the settlement,." according to Long Island Newsday.

Others weighed in on the situation in varying degrees of agreement with Mara and also thought the settlement let the 49ers off too easy. New Orleans Saints' Owner Tom Benson, on the settlement: "It's good that we're going to get a lot stricter on this stuff, but I wish we'd had a policy in place that would have made this ruling stiffer ... But the new agreement [giving the commissioner broad powers] should be a deterrent. At least I hope it is." Another NFL team owner was quoted as saying, "I think they (Policy and Clark) got away with murder."

National Football League Players' Association Executive Director Gene Upshaw said, "I don't think (the 49ers) got off light . . . The other owners around the league will make a lot of noise, but they've got to look at what was there. They might have wanted more authority from the commissioner, but it wasn't there,"

In comparison with the NBA's recent actions against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the NFL action is quite light and, in a typical settlement-type agreement, stipulated that neither Policy or Clark admit to any wrongdoing.

In addition to the penalties levied against the 49ers and their former executives, agents Leigh Steinberg, Jeff Moorad and Gary Wichard, who represented quarterback Jim Druckenmiller, linebacker Woodall, quarterback Steve Young and tight end Brent Jones, received "substantial" fines. It was reported that Steinberg, who represented Young and Jones, will pay a fine of $250,000, while Wichard, who represented Druckenmiller, will pay $100,000. The money is "going to league and union designated charities."

[Mike-49er]

From what I can deduce is you pretty much propped the fact that, even though the Niners have not been in the Super Bowl in 10 years, and have had two back to back bad seasons..the team is not only STILL selling out games, but, in the words of this article, are moving right along, expecting to do the same, still, with a little marketing.

"Peart said the renewal rate of season tickets was "better than we expected . . . coming off a 2-14 season. There are other teams in the NFL that are sub-.500 clubs that are renewing at 84 or 82 percent. So we really think it speaks in a powerful way to the loyalty of our fan base, the value of our season tickets, that we would be able to renew at over 90 percent."

Amazing..isn't it? lol..now..where oh where is that article that was posted DURING the Raiders super bowl appearance year, 4 years ago, that chided raider fans for not even selling out a must win game at around week 14 or 15? There was another one regarding the very first game back after the Super Bowl where raiders AGAIN..didn't sell out. Hmmm..where, oh where can those be?

Raiders blacked out on New Year's Eve
By Bill Soliday, STAFF WRITER



ALAMEDA — Prime-time football on New Year's Eve may work as far as the television networks are concerned, but it has fizzled in Oakland.
The Oakland Raiders will close their season Saturday in relative anonymity. There will not be a full house at McAfee Coliseum for Oakland's 5 p.m. game against the New York Giants.

That means the game will not be televised, the fifth to fail to sell out and allow the blackout to be lifted. The Raiders did not say how many unsold tickets remain, however there were indications there were plenty. They did not even petition the NFL to give them a 24-hour reprieve to reach sellout status.

After achieving sellouts in their first two games against Kansas City and Dallas, the Raiders have only been on local TV during home games once since — against Denver.

Attendance for their last two home games even failed to draw 50,000. Miami attracted 49,097 and Cleveland 41,862. Average attendance through the team's first seven home games has been 53,408.

The Raiders have had more than two blackouts for every televised game since the franchise returned from Los Angeles in 1995. There have been 29 sellouts, 59 non-sellouts

WOW..TWICE AS MANY blackouts as sellouts? Are you SERIOUS?? And..in all this time..all those years..TEN FULL YEARS SINCE WE'VE BEEN TO THE SB..we're STILL selling out..EVERY GAME?? Not ONE SINGLE BLACKOUT SINCE 1980??? Man..I'm proud to state I'm STILL a season ticket holder..and STILL support my team. Sorry Raider fans can't say the same.


Oh..and thanks for verifying to all that no poster may EVER whine about us winning any Super Bowls by "cheating"..Considering our last Super Bowl win was in 1995, and the wrist slap was in 1997..I do believe you have cleared this up quite nicely, RaiderBitch. lol...way to go.

Hey?? I was wondering..now that your lying ass is posting and kissing up to Bengal fans (BTW..how stupid was it of YOU to state "I'm a raider fan..I don't post on other boards"? lol..slap a duh on that furrowed brow) can I also call you RaiderBitch/BengalPussy? Kind of has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

[RaiderBeast]

Originally Posted by Mike-49er

you can find me at world.com, nfl-fans or raidersnet.com..and much to the chagrin of *****slapped ram fans on the St louis Post Disparch board.

You're still a loser..

[RaiderBeast]

I forgot trolling Cincy forum and probably every other NFL team.. LOSER

We all know you strive for attention. Your world involves a computer and dumb ass takes.. Spin a post all you want cause you have no credability. You're a TROLL and you NEED attention. Your nothing but a fuk stain that comes off in the wash.

Copy and post, tell everyone how you'll be in NH and I won't give you my address. "No he'll meet me at the airport but show up with friends"..
Do some research slap nuts, everyone knows where I go to watch football, I'm definately not hard to find.

See you take things personal since you follow people to other boards. You belong to every forum because your life is pathetic. It's understandable why you like the Whiners, they won when you were a kid and now they are losers just like yourself.

Blah Blah Blah Raiders suck right, that's all you say.. We won the AFC West three years in a row and played in the SB in Jan 2003. But all you praise is sellouts.. Because your franchise only fights for that not winning games..
Have fun running here to twist and write what you want. You'll still be a loser tomorrow..

[Mike-49er]

Uh..**** for brains??

Takes but minutes to post on boards..takes you a tad bit longer though..see..there's the whole thought process thing, that seems to get in your way. Then there's the applying what little process you actually believe just might work..and then, of course, there's that bite of reality that says you just **** on yourself again.

Now..not only did YOU, from memory, post those other boards that I stated to you, a while back, that I posted on..but you now, for whatever reason, went back and looked it up, cut and paste it..for WHAT..exactly??

to let me know that not only are you ball less in that you not only don't dare take on rival fans, but likely are too stupid to discuss the game?? is that it?

Oh..**** for brains?? Did you just state "I post on Cincy's board..LOSER"?? lol..you mean the board where you go and pucker up and kiss their ass over there?? How stupid are you dude? You post there..yet I'm a loser for posting there?

Yep..**** FOR BRAINS.

I see you wisely did NOT reply to my comments above. I love that you know your limitations. Maybe you're not as stupid as you look...wouldn't bet on it though.

[Heat0711]

dude ur team bites ass. u play in the worst division in football and cant put up a record worth crapping on. honestly take ur s*** somewhere else. ur pathetic in ur attempts to hate. why dont u just worry about ur team and stop hatin on others? oh maybe because ur franchise is down the crapper and wont be plunged until u no longer can see a game.

[Heat0711]

hey mike i hear ur missing a parade in san fran....better get on it bro.

[Mike-49er]

Sorry "heat"..your idiot decisions to use "u" and that even sorrier dumbass comment about parade just screams dumb kid.

I have a rule about smacking around defenseless dumbass idiot kids.

Get a note from your mom first.