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Monday, Jul 21, 2008 10:52 am EDT

New ticket plan aims to keep Dallas fans out of Cards' stadium


The Arizona Cardinals are trying to "protect the nest." This means they'd like University of Phoenix Stadium to continue to sell out, and to do so with as few opposing fans as possible.

In the past two seasons, there was little concern about this since the team sold out every home game. But with ticket sales a bit slower as the third season approaches, the Cardinals are requiring fans who want to buy tickets to the Dallas game on Oct. 12 to also buy tickets for the Aug. 7 exhibition opener vs. New Orleans. Cardinals fans have "created a decisive home-field advantage" the past two years, and the team wants to keep it that way by discouraging single-game ticket sales to Dallas Cowboys fans, team spokesman Mark Dalton said.

"Our goal is to have as many Cardinal fans in the stadium as possible," Dalton said.

In terms of overall ticket sales, "We're a little slower than we were at this point" last year, Dalton said, citing the slowing economy. Dalton estimated about 58,000 season tickets have been sold. Ideally, the Cardinals would like to sell about 60,000 season tickets and hold back 3,000 or so to sell for individual games.

"If we don't get to that threshold, then there will be a few more individual single-game tickets available," Dalton said.

Source: East Valley Tribune