More Phila. citizen groups using mayor's luxury boxes at stadiums

The mayor's luxury box seats in Philadelphia's stadiums and arenas have been doing a booming business under the Nutter administration, according to city records.

After the administration put in place a more transparent and open process for those seeking use of the free boxes, fewer seats are empty, and more are going to citizen groups as opposed to those with political clout.

"Demand for tickets has gone through the roof," Nutter spokesman Doug Oliver said. "And the number of sources requesting them has grown significantly."

While the majority of the tickets are still finding their way into the hands of city employees and elected officials, the number going to private groups has jumped signficantly, from 55 in the second quarter of the year, to 357 in the third quarter.

The records represent the first time in decades that the recipients of thousands of free tickets - to Phillies, Eagles, 76ers and Flyers games, and more - have been closely monitored.

Under the Street administration, for instance, records were frequently hand-written and incomplete.

The new computer tracking results from a policy Nutter enacted in April to try to distribute the tickets more evenly, after years of winding up almost exclusively in the hands of those with political connections.

That doesn't mean the politically connected have lost out.

City Council members, for instance, have requested 306 tickets since the policy went into effect.

"Going to the mayor's box is still a big deal for me, to tell you the truth, but it's a really big deal to people who do things in the community, and that's who we give them away to," City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. said. "So as many of them as I can request, I'm going to request, to let them feel 'a part' " of things.

Jones, Councilman Bill Green and Councilwoman Maria Quinoñez Sanchez - Council's newest members - account for more than a third of the tickets that Council requested from April through Sept. 30.

The Mayor's Office allows each council member to take all the tickets to a box once a year.

Three other council members - W. Wilson Goode Jr., Darrell Clarke and Frank DiCicco - asked for no tickets.

"Up until now, we haven't really had any great sports teams," Clarke quipped.

The records also show that of 1,173 total tickets requested since April, 342 went to city employees, many who are Nutter's senior aides.

Among them were Managing Director Camille Barnett, who got four tickets to watch the Phillies play the Braves on July 26; Inspector General Amy Kurland, who took 10 of her staff to see the Phillies play the Dodgers on Aug. 25; and City Solicitor Shelley Smith and Education Secretary Lori Shorr, who both went to an Aug. 27 Phillies game against the Mets.

Dozens of other tickets went to relatives of administration staffers. On May 30, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey's son watched the Phillies take on the Marlins. On Aug. 14, Chief of Staff Clay Armbrister and three members of his family were among the 20 people in the mayor's box at Lincoln Financial Field.

Nutter's brother-in-law joined him at several Eagles games, along with the mayor's wife and daughter.

The records show that Inquirer reporter Kia Gregory attended a June 16 Phillies game as a guest of a member of the mayor's staff. The Inquirer's policy on conflicts of interest prohibits staffers from accepting such free tickets. Gregory reimbursed the city for $150 for the ticket yesterday.

Other tickets have gone to the families of slain police Officers Isabel Nazario and Patrick McDonald.

While the administration failed to distribute tickets for the vast majority of events in April, May and June, it gave out far more in July, August and September. The upshot: ticket usage increased from 17 percent to 70 percent during those respective time periods.

Still, no one sat in the boxes for recent concerts by Ani DiFranco; Neil Diamond; Jethro Tull and Peter Frampton; and Nine Inch Nails.

Oliver said the luxury boxes function as a tool for the mayor to build relationships with other officials.

But to date, those invitees have been few and far between, and include several commissioners from Philadelphia's surrounding counties and State Rep. Dwight Evans.

Most recently, on Sunday, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty and four guests sat with Nutter as the Redskins defeated the Eagles.