Mike Richards holds up the new jersey, a photo courtesy of the Flyers.

The Flyers tonight currently are unveiling their retro orange jerseys at a "meet the team" party at the Wachovia Center. These will be used as an altrernative third jersey.

Fans can order the new retro orange jersey as early as tomorrow at philadelphiaflyers.com. The jerseys will be available to purchase in person starting 7 a.m. on Black Friday, Nov. 28, in the store at the Center.

Along with the wins is the first of what likely will be several promotions that try to build attendance for Sixers games at the Wachovia Center .

The Sixers earlier today said they would begin offering approximately 2,000 specially priced $10 tickets for the four remaining home games in November and all six games in December. These can be purchased through ComcastTIX at sixers.com, by calling 1-800-298-4200, or at select Acme Markets.

Drawing fans into the Center has been difficult this fall, thanks first to the overlapping dates with the Phillies and then a disappointing 2-5 start. They've since won three straight. Through only five games they ranked 28^th in the league in attendance, averaging 12,758.

Lara Price, Senior VP of Business Operations, said last week that the primary goal was to bring in fans “who haven’t been there to sample our product. That’s my challenge and that’s our job . . . to find way to reach those consumers.”

To that end, she said it would require “being very creative and taking advantage of all the different opportunities. We have to be creative and we have to be flexible, and that comes from working with our sponsors. As you know, we work with a lot of industries that are taking a big hit in this industry, not just us. We’re partners with them, so how do we best help each other.”

They planned to supplement that by working with potential sponsors on promotions. This $10 deal includes presenting sponsor Revolution Card for the November games and team sponsors Taco Bell and KFC for the December games.  

 “We are excited to offer these newly priced tickets to our fans,” Price was quoted in a release. “We want to thank Revolution Card, KFC® and Taco Bell® for their assistance in helping us initiate the new ticket price.”

The offer is redeemable in November for the 21^st vs. the Clippers at 7 p.m., the 23^rd against the Warriors at 5 p.m., the 26^th vs. the Magic at 7:30 p.m., and the 30^th vs. the Bulls at 5.

Coupons for the December games will become available at all participating Taco Bell and KFC locations around the area beginning Dec. 1. Those dates are Wednesday, Dec. 3 vs. the Lakers at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 6 vs. the Nets at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 10 vs. the Cavaliers at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 13 vs. the Wizards at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 17 vs. the Bucks at 7 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 20 vs. the Pacers at 7:30 p.m.

The Flyers this Tuesday night will be unveiling their new retro orange jerseys, which will become their alternative third jersey.

To celebrate the event, the Flyers will be holding a “meet the team” party for season ticketholders that will begin at 6:30 at the Wachovia Center. Those who attend will be able to grab autographs from various players and also take pictures of them. In addition, they will have a chance to win prizes and play games.

Those new jerseys will go on sale the next day, Nov. 19, at philadelphiaflyers.com, and will be available for the first time in person at the Wachovia Center starting 7 a.m. on Black Friday (Nov. 28).

So what’s the only negative about winning a title? It puts the ticket department about a month behind; a small sacrifice, for sure.

So, in the case of the Phillies, season ticketholders are only this week beginning to see what it will cost to view the world champions next year. Prices are going up for those who purchase the variety of season-ticket packages or buy seats for individual games. Those hikes range from $2 to $6 a seat, but not across the board.

“Some of the areas we haven’t raised since we moved into Citizens Bank Park,” John Weber, vice president for sales and ticket operations, said yesterday. “Our terrace deck went up from $20 to $22 for a season price, and it was $20 when we moved in in 2004. That [field level] area that was $40 when we opened . . . went to $44 in 2007, and we raised it to $50 [for next year]. And some other areas went up as well.

“Each year you kind of look at it. You have an area where you may or may not have done the year before, and pick and choose and go from there.”

Prices for 2009 full season ticketholders already are up on the team Web site. They range from $4,100 for spots on the field level to $1,316 in part of the terrace deck.

Weber said that his staff this week is reaching out to customers who signed up for deposits for either postseason options or put down a deposit to be first in line for season tickets for 2009.

“We’re asking them to call us and anybody who doesn’t call us, we’ll reach back out to them,” he said. 

Season ticketholders should be receiving their invoices by the middle of next week. Then the staff will work toward filling many of the other available packages before tickets for individual games go on sale. Expect to see similar increases for the cost of seats that you buy for individual games as the announced hikes for season ticket packages.

“We sell individual tickets in probably another week to 10 days,” Weber said. “If something went up $3; give you an example, the terrace deck that was $20 and $22, they went to $22 and $24. So, again, $2 and $2, not $2 and $8 or anything like that. But we maintained the season discount for season ticketholders, we maintained the April, May, September pricing, with the lower price and the prime pricing. A lot of things stayed the same.”

Opening Day is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday, April 5, vs. the Braves. The game will be televised on ESPN2. That won’t be the first game at Citizens Bank Park in 2009. Those will be Friday, April 3, and Saturday, April 4, when the Tampa Bay Rays head north for two exhibition games. The Friday game will start at 7:05 p.m. and the Saturday game will start at 1:05 p.m. Pitchers and catchers start working out, by the way, on Feb. 14. It's coming fast.

The Phils are coming off the best attendance season in their history, drawing 3.4 million during the regular season plus stuffing the place for all seven postseason games. Still, Weber said, they’re far from being in the same boat at the NFL Eagles and MLB Red Sox, where people’s names sit on a season-ticket waiting list. Reportedly, the Red Sox have a waiting list of 7,000 for season tickets to Fenway Park.

“We had great support last year, we were able to increase our season-ticket base to over 20,000 last year, and obviously we’re looking forward to an exciting season next year,” he said, responding to a question about whether the Phillies had any kind of a waiting list. “Obviously the economy and a lot of other things factor in, but hopefully with the wide spectrum of plans, the wide spectrum of prices we have, will allow all of our fans to attend. We have waiting lists of people trying to get into different areas of our ballpark -- Diamond Club, Hall of Fame, the seats from [sections] 115 to 132. Those areas are not available. So there are elements of our ballpark [where people are waiting for available seats]. But I think we designed the right size [ballpark] for Philadelphia and our fans."  

   Empty seats have been a chronic problem for the Sixers even before Allen Iverson left town. Now, even off last season’s playoff run and the offseason signing of Elton Brand, those low numbers are creeping back into the picture.

   Through four games, the Sixers are averaging 12,601 in attendance, ranking them 28th out of 30 NBA teams. That they started by losing five of their first seven hasn’t helped. Neither did that shadow the size of Yao Ming cast by the Phillies and their world championship.

   “Definitely, there was so much attention and so much money spent on the Phillies,” Jeremi Conaway, of Wanamaker’s Tickets in Center City, said earlier today. “People weren’t thinking about basketball at all. There’s only so much money to go around, and a majority of that definitely was going to the Phillies. At the same time, the Sixers’ attendance would be much better if they were playing better basketball.”

    Attendance peaked in 2001-02, when the Sixers drew an average of 20,560, then steadily decreased thereafter. While last season’s final number of 13,870 was the lowest since 1995-96, the final season at the Wachovia Spectrum, it actually languished below 12,000 well into December before better opponents and a run to the playoffs drew much bigger crowds.

    This season’s opener conflicted with Game 5 of the World Series, and the second game occurred a few hours after the parade, on Halloween night. Their third home game was scheduled on Monday, the day before the election. Several members of the Daily News sports consumer panel thought the timing of everything ganged up on the team.

    “I think the momentum from the signing and the good play of late last year were diminished by the Phillies run,” wrote Brian Ward, of Blue Bell, Pa. “And now that the Eagles are into the season, it’s tough for them to get that back. Their slow start isn’t helping either. But I think they just need some time to get used to a low post presence and will be ok. Hopefully by the time that happens, it’s not too late to get the momentum back.”

      Heather Greenburg of Marlton, N.J., said the Phillies definitely have been a factor.  “I am still on a high and quite frankly a bit worn out from lack of sleep and celebrating,” she wrote. “It may take me a while to get into sort of rah rah state of mind for our other three majors. When do pitchers and catchers report?”

      The economy? Andre Braxton, of Cherry Hill, says the Sixers’ audience figures to be the one most affected. “Everyone got caught up in the Phillies, and then the Sixers started slow,” he wrote. “Besides, the economy is hitting this area hard. The truth is that Sixers games are not as essential to the paying attendees as the Eagles and Flyers are. The Sixers, more than the other 3 teams in the area, get the people's luxury dollar.  People don't have that luxury dollar right now.”

       The Sixers, as a policy, don’t release numbers on ticket sales. So it was rare when they said back in July that they had added about 1,000 new full-season tickets to the fold, most of them in the three weeks after the signing of Elton Brand. What also followed that was a full-scale media blitz that included full-page newspaper ads and billboards.

      “[Our philosophy when we got Elton] is that we had that opportunity,” Sixers senior VP of business operations Lara Price said. “We’re all in first place until we play that first game, so all the hope is there. So you have to take advantage of that. When you make a significant move like that, you have to be ready to move on it. Was it more than we’ve done on the past? Yes, because we knew the marketplace was going to be hot and it would pique people’s interest. So we definitely took advantage of it. We probably would have done that anyway, but had we not gotten that acquisition, we probably would have pushed more once we got Andre [Iguodala] signed, too, just because people wanted that to happen.”

       Price didn’t want to say she was disappointed at what the payoff has been so far, only that she knows her staff has to work harder. “We’re still doing a lot of those individual ticket offers, trying to get different people in the building,” she said. “That’s our challenge, that’s our job, to find a way to reach those consumers.”

       She also said they are working with current and potential sponsors on promotions that will create more interest. “We will get out of it,” she said. “But it’s just a matter of being very creative and taking advantage of all the different opportunities.”

       Conaway, of Wanamaker’s Tickets, said more games like last night’s win over Toronto would help. “Last night’s win was a good win, but we need more of them for people to get interested.”

       So will opponents that have players with name recognition, at least until the Sixers start winning consistently. The Lakers and Kobe Bryant are due in on a Wednesday night, Dec. 3. LeBron James and the Cavaliers will visit later. So will division rivals New Jersey and Washington. Their next home game is Saturday night against Oklahoma City.
    
       “Fans are very basketball smart [and I think less loyal than to the other three] and saw during the preseason that the Sixers weren't going to make a splash for awhile even with Brand,” wrote Dana Wickes, of Langhorne, Pa. “Given the economy, they’re not going to spend good money on bad basketball when they can maybe have a little better holiday season.”

Saint Joseph's officials are expecting more than 7,000 in attendance for Friday's 7 p.m. men's basketball game vs. Rider. It will be a sighting of the Hawk as rare as a UFO; normally St. Jos's plays its home games at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse on campus. But a year-long renovation and expansion program has pushed the Hawks on the "road" this season. They'll play this game at the Wachovia Center, then play the remainder of their home games this season at the Palestra.

And, if they are fortunate enough to earn an NCAA tournament berth, they could get back to the Center, which will play host to first- and second-round games next March.

Tickets are available through the Center's box office, by accessing www.comcasttix.com,
or by calling 1-800-298-4200.

You can save some money on tickets for that game and others by participating in a massive recycling initiative, scheduled for that day at the sports complex. Bring your paper products that are cluttering your files and desks at home to the Wachovia Center parking lot between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Friday. Shred-it, a full-service document destruction company located in Bensalem, Pa., will shred documents throughout the day. Expect to see Sixers mascot Hip Hop, Phantoms mascot Phlex, and the Flyers Delta Dental Ice Team in the vicinity as you lug in your paper.

Each person who donates bulk paper products that day will receive the following ticket offers:

* A $10 discount on tickets to see the Saint Joe's-Rider game
* $10 tickets to see the 76ers at the Wachovia Center during the 2008-09 regular season, pending availability
* $25 tickets to see the Flyers during select games in November and December
* A buy-one ticket-get-one-free Offer to see Phantoms hockey and Wings lacrosse this season

Certain restrictions apply and offers are based on availability.

Remember the buzz that existed for years around here after A.I. arrived?

He produced the same kick in the butt to a lethargic fan base in Denver when the Sixers traded him out there in December 2006. Within a couple weeks, the team had sold 620 season tickets and more than 1,100 six-game packages, and had watched 1,700 Iverson jerseys pass the cash register at the Pepsi Center. TV rating also shot up.

So it’s no surprise the Pistons are seeing a similar bump in the week or so since Iverson arrived in Detroit. Sports Business Daily reported today that in the first three days after the trade, the Pistons were averaging more than 5,000 individual ticket sales per day. That number still was up around 3,800 on Monday. Sales, according to staff writer Erik Swanson, the Pistons were selling between 1,000 and 1,500 tickets a day before the trade was announced. A total of 180 fans have bought ticket plans for the entire season.

Palace Sports & Entertainment President & CEO Tom Wilson said the bad economy in Detroit makes the numbers even more remarkable. “Five thousand tickets may not seem like a lot, but to us, the way this year is in Detroit, it’s an amazing number,” he said. Among the ticket plans implemented by the team is the "Five-rson," a five-game package for the price of four.

Meanwhile, the team reported that it had sold around 2,000 Iverson No. 1 Pistons jerseys at the team store located in the Palace of Auburn Hills. TV ratings for the first two games on Fox Sports Net Detroit were up, on average, around 6 percent.

Wilson said the team expanded its store hours over the weekend. In addition, it has launched a ticket package for the Nov. 19 Cavaliers-Pistons game that includes a lower-level ticket and an adidas road blue Iverson jersey for $65. Wilson told Sports Business Daily, “That was kind of a clarion call, when everybody called to get a jersey, to say, ‘Well here’s how we can package this thing.’”

The Flyers are touting a number of initiatives they started for the 2008-09 campiagn, including an advisory board made up of 15 season ticketholders.

Senior VP for business operations Shawn Tilger said early this evening that the team thought this would be a way to gain valuable feedback from people who stick their fannies in the seats at the Wachovia Center on a regular basis. That group, picked randomly by the team, includes a mix of fans who just became ticketholders and those who have held their tickets for a number of years. It also represents fans sitting in sections throughout the building.

Tilger said they’ve met three times and will continue to meet periodically through the remainder of the season. One area, he said, that they’ve been helpful so far is in making suggestions on getting the word out about the team’s new initiatives to ticketholders. What are they? Well, besides the advisory board, there are personalized team calendars, a re-launching of their collectible auctions (the stand is located by Section 120 on game nights), a new phone portal (fans can call 215.218.4326 anytime for updated info on the team), a new ticket site called myflyerstickets.com, and a feature called Stored Value that lets fans store money in increments of $10 and $25 onto their tickets to use for concessions, merchandise and hospitality. Stored Value can be used by season ticketholders as well as those buying a ticket for a single game.

This the first time a team has leaned on a fan advisory board. The Arena League’s Soul created one for last season. At the time, general manager Rich Lisk said he was looking for ideas and feedback, even if some of it is critical. “I told them, ‘I don’t need 14 yes people,” he said back in Feburary. “ 'I need 14 people to give me their opinions.’ ”

Tilger said that’s what they’re seeking, too. Probably the main difference between the two boards is that the Soul publicized the names of the individuals of their group while the Flyers’ advisory board members are anonymous.

While it seems like the number of available tickets for each game is higher than it used to be, current data shows that through seven home games the Flyers rank sixth in the league in attendance, at 19,243. Three of the cities above them – Montreal, Calgary and Toronto – are in Canada. Chicago leads in attendance, averaging 21,351. Philly finished fourth in league attendance last season, at 19,556, according to the numbers available on espn.com. They averaged 19,282 in 2006-07 and 19,653 the season before.

One other hockey note. The NHL starting tomorrow will begin real-time All-Star fan balloting, the first time a major sports league has tried this. Through Jan. 2, fans as often as they like can vote for up to six Eastern Conference players and six Western Conference players. Throughout the period, fans can check nhl.com to get real-time updates on the voting.   

While the start of the Sixers season has hardly gone like Elton Brand would have hoped, the script for the debut of his EB1 signature basketball shoe went according to plan during Saturday at Girard College in Philly.

More than 200 kids were invited to participate in Converse’s Philly Run program, in which they competed in pick-up basketball games and received Converse gear. Each participant was given a free pair of the shoes directly from Brand.

The EB1 is Brand’s first signature shoe. According to the press release, it features a sleek midfoot strap for lockdown, with a ventilated upper to enhance breathability and a molded sockliner to provide comfort. Brand’s “EB” logo, which features his initials and the letter “D” that pays homage to his mother Daisy and his Dunbar Heights neighborhood near Peekskill, NY, is embossed on the midfoot strap.  Costing $65, the shoe went on sale at JCPenney on Nov. 1. The shoe will come out in addition colors through next spring.

During the 2008-2009 season, Converse will host the Philly Run basketball program in Philadelphia to give every player, regardless of skill level, the opportunity to play basketball. The program is free for all participants and will take place once a month through May. Participants will receive Philly Run jerseys and will have the opportunity to test Converse performance basketball product and hear from Brand. Registration for later Philly Run events is free and open to the public at www.converse.com.