Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Jimmy Holden of Olympia looks over his playoff tickets Friday morning in Lacey.

Playoff tickets sell out before you could say 'Ichiro'

GAIL WOOD, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published September 29

OLYMPIA -- Like hot-dog vendors shouting "Get 'em while they're hot," Ticketmaster outlets statewide sold Seattle Mariners playoff tickets Friday at a red-hot pace, selling all 15,000 in about 35 minutes.

The two Olympia-area outlets -- Rite Aid in Lacey and Wherehouse Music in Olympia -- each sold about 170 tickets to 25 people for the two playoff games at Safeco Field against Cleveland, with tickets going for $35 or $50 each.

"Everyone was fairly orderly," said Kirk Leonard, a Wherehouse Music employee. "They were a little cranky when they found out they weren't going to get tickets. But there were no riots, no punching."

Civility prevailed largely because the tickets for the playoff opener against Cleveland were sold on a lottery basis.

"It's the only fair way to do it," said Charlotte Ainsworth, a ticket seller at Rite Aid. "Otherwise you've got people camping overnight in front of your store."

Fans wanting tickets picked up free bracelets with four-digit numbers Wednesday, with Wherehouse issuing 350 bracelets and Rite Aid 250. Only fans with bracelets were eligible Friday.

Getting first-round playoff tickets Friday had all the win-or-lose drama of a game, putting pressure on the sales clerks. The faster a clerk went, the more tickets sold. But Rose Swift, the ticket seller at Wherehouse, didn't rush too much.

"You don't want to mess up," Swift said. "You try to keep a calm atmosphere and go as fast as you can without making a mistake."

Still, everyone knew the clock was ticking.

"It is stressful," Swift said.

By 8 a.m. fans began to arrive, a long line stretching around each of the two stores. At 9 a.m. the sales began, and by 9:35 a.m. Ainsworth said the sales ended.

Leonard was one of the Mariners fans turned away.

"When they announced the number of the first person, I knew I didn't have a chance," Leonard said. "I just went home and had pancakes before coming back to work."

About the ticket fans in waiting, Ainsworth said: "Everyone was patient. The ones that didn't get tickets were disappointed, but they realized there were only so many tickets to be sold."

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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