Fast Break

Baseball

M’s don’t plan to raise prices

The American League-worst Seattle Mariners don’t plan to raise ticket prices for next season, and they might even offer some cheaper seats in response to tough economic times.

“We are not looking to raise ticket prices,” Bob Aylward, the team’s vice president of business operations, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “We may tweak some of our variable pricing upward or downward. … But those fans who show up to buy tickets the first day of sales next year, they won’t see any change in ticket prices, even though there may be minor tweaks overall.”

The Mariners, whom many had picked to win their division, finished the season 61-101 and are expected to completely retool their front office and roster for next year.

“What will happen next year is hard to know between the year we had and the economy,” team president Chuck Armstrong said. No raise in ticket prices “is a good assumption to make.”

However, one program that worked well for the team this year was designating seven games – against the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees – “premium games” that cost more to attend.

“The seven premium games worked well,” Armstrong said. “We’re thinking of expanding that.”

The Mariners face other challenges. One of the team’s primary sponsors, Washington Mutual, is the largest U.S. bank to fail, eventually being sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Sept. 26.

Home attendance at Safeco Field has fallen from 3.5 million in 2001-02 to 2.3 million in 2008. Given the economy and the state of the team, it’s not clear that’s going to turn around any time soon.

“I do have great trepidation over the economy,” Armstrong said. “If the good folks in Washington (D.C.) and New York don’t know what will happen, I’m not sure we at the Mariners should, either.

“We’ll have to wait and see what happens after the dust settles.”

College football

Top 25

(1) Oklahoma 49

Baylor 17

(2) Alabama 17

Kentucky 14

(4) Missouri 52

Nebraska 17

(5) Texas 38

Colorado 14

(6) Penn State 20

Purdue 6

(7) Texas Tech 58

Kansas State 28

(9) Southern Cal 44

(23) Oregon 10

(12) Florida 38

Arkansas 7

(19) Vanderbilt. 14

(13) Auburn 13

(14) Ohio State 20

(18) Wisconsin. 17

(16) Kansas 35

Iowa State 33

(20) Virginia Tech 27

Western Kentucky 13

(21) Oklahoma State 56

Texas A&M. 28

(22) Hawaii.32

Fresno State29 (OT)

North Carolina. 38

(24) Connecticut 12