The Seattle Seahawks are 4-1 and suddenly the hottest ticket in town. Their last two home games have been sold out (one with the help of corporate sponsors) and the rest of the season looks like it will be almost filled to capacity.
It's a drastic turnaround from last season, when there were plenty of open seats at Seahawks Stadium, including an embarassing non-sellout for the stadium's opener.
This season, however, it's a different tune. The Hawks had a stadium-record crowd of 66,437 for last week's win over San Francisco and this week, even with a bad Chicago team coming to town, Seattle is still on the verge of a sellout.
The Seahawks have fewer than 1,000 tickets remaining for Sunday's game, which also means the game will be televised locally.
The Seahawks have always contended that a healthy crowd would make a difference on the field, and coach Mike Holmgren has been quite appreciative of the crowds so far this season.
"They clearly have helped us win the last two ball games here. They were awesome," he said. They were really, really awesome the other night. It's so much fun to be in that place when it's fun and have them noisy and have them helping us.
"The excitement, I feel good about that. Not personally, but I'm happy for the organization and I'm happy for the fans. That's a great stadium. When it's full, it's fun. And it helps us."
There are tickets remaining for the rest of the season, but not many.
After Sunday, the Seahawks' next home game is Nov. 2 against Pittsburgh, a game that has been nearly sold out since the start of the season because the Steelers don't come out to Seattle very often.
The rest of the home schedule sees Detroit, Cleveland and Arizona visit Seahawks Stadium. None of those teams are a particularly big draw, but if the Seahawks are still winning, it will make the tickets more difficult to get.
On e-bay, four tickets to Sunday's game are going for as much as $600 -- a far cry from when you could simply walk up to the ticket counter on game day and pick up tickets with no problem.
"It's really cool to see the excitement for the Seahawks and to see the way the fans are into the game," Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said.
Elliott Smith covers the Seahawks for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5473 or ejsmith1@olympia.gannett.com.
- Sunday: 1 p.m. (Fox, Ch. 13).
- Records: Chicago (1-4), Seattle (4-1).
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