You gotta pay to watch ’em play

Football: The Seattle Seahawks are asking fans who are renewing season tickets to pay a little bit more in 2010 even though the team is coming off consecutive losing seasons.

The Seahawks recently sent season-ticket holders renewal information that asks for an average of a 3 percent increase in ticket prices over 2009. The largest per-seat renewal increase is $5 per game.

Seattle did not increase season-ticket prices in 2009 but did charge approximately 6,000 new season-ticket holders more for their seats.

In 2010, the team will have two levels of renewal pricing: one for those who held tickets before 2009 and those who bought season tickets for the first time last season.

Seattle continues to have a waiting list for season tickets that goes back to 2006, when the team capped season- ticket sales at 61,000.

Associated Press

Turn down the glare, Chenise

Girls basketball: Mead senior guard Chenise Pakootas drew attention the moment she stepped on the floor Wednesday at the State 4A girls basketball tournament at the Tacoma Dome.

Pakootas wore a new pair of Nike Hyperize shoes that had a striking neon yellow tint.

“I saw them on the Internet and found them at the beginning of the season,” Pakootas said. “I told my parents I wanted them. They were like, ‘No.’ They surprised me and got them for me for Christmas.”

Her shoes are a size 81/2 men’s. They cost $230.

“I saved them for state,” she said.

Greg Lee

State honors its Olympians

Olympic athletes from Washington state were saluted by the Legislature and later toasted by Gov. Chris Gregoire as state officials took a brief break from more mundane things like budget deficits to honor participants in the Vancouver Games.

A resolution naming nine athletes with ties to Washington, from Will Brandenburg of Spokane to Apolo Ohno of Seattle, was approved by the Senate. Gregoire hosted an evening reception for the state’s Olympians at the governor’s mansion.

It was a full day: Many of the Olympians arrived in Olympia after being swarmed by fans earlier at Seattle’s Westlake Center. Not present for festivities in either Seattle or Olympia was Ohno, who was in New York for TV appearances.

Jim Camden