Cheap Seats
Our Lady of the 50-Yard Line
Sales of personal seat licenses are to begin Monday for the new stadium the Houston Oilers plan to move into in Nashville - the city where the PSL concept started. No, Twang City has never had a pro football franchise before. It all began in church.
The trendy concept of charging a one-time fee of hundreds or thousands of dollars for the right to buy a season ticket for a particular seat forever got its start in the 1880s. A curator at the Tennessee State Museum says recently uncovered documents show members of First Presbyterian Church, now Downtown Presbyterian, paid for choice pews. A framed rental receipt from 1885 donated to the museum reflects a payment of $25 for six months.
The price may have varied, said Jim Hoobler, the museum’s curator of art and architecture. “You probably paid more to be closer to the front,” he said. “It is, in fact, a 19th-century PSL.”
Let it snow
Snowball throwing by Giants fans recently got them into hot water - and into the late-night monologues.
“It was ugly, it was embarrassing,” said CBS’ David Letterman. “On the other hand, it was nice to see someone finally hitting the Giants receivers.”
From NBC’s Conan O’Brien: “The Giants announced that 75 season-ticket holders who threw snowballs will be banned from attending any more games. I don’t think they should be rewarded for that kind of behavior.”
Not to be outdone, NBC teammate Jay Leno: “The refs were gonna forfeit the game to the visiting team, and then they realized, well, this is Giants Stadium. The visiting team wins automatically.”
Letterman’s last word: “Police have arrested the man who was pictured throwing snowballs. He faces six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. And if it turns out he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, he’ll be signed by the Yankees.”
Take this job and shove it
Rob Butcher declined the chance to return as the Yankees’ media relations director after George Steinbrenner offered him his job back last week.
You’ll recall that three days before Christmas, Steinbrenner dismissed Butcher because he was traveling home to Ohio and was unavailable to announce New York’s signing of free-agent pitcher David Cone. Butcher had been fired 11 times since 1993 and rehired each time.
“I thought it was better to explore some other opportunities,” Butcher said. “It’s time to move on.”
Wasn’t George telling him that the other 11 times?
Towel!
A broken pipeline poured an estimated 200,000 gallons of water onto the floor of Weber State’s Dee Events Center Wednesday. Officials considered moving last night’s game against Denver to the University of Utah 35 miles away, but crews quickly cleaned up the mess. The source: a broken city water line.
Are they sure it wasn’t the gel from those defective Converse shoes?
The last word …
“Bo Jackson got his degree from Auburn recently, and you know what that means. Right, no more lowpaying, dead-end jobs for him.”
- Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
, DataTimes