Pitino News Conference At Noon Today; Cloudy Celtics Ticket Picture

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

        1.8.99 00:05:42
        CELTICS
        Ticket picture just as cloudy as revamped
        schedule for Celts

By MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer

So you have a ticket for the Bulls-Celtics game Friday
night, April 16, at the FleetCenter.

The good news is that your ticket will get you into an
NBA game. The bad news is that you might not see the
Bulls and Celtics on the 16th.

The NBA is trying to cram a 50-game season into the 13
weeks from the beginning of February to the end of
April. What that means for fans who already hold
tickets is uncertain.

``Things aren't concrete yet, so I think it's a little
premature to make any statement,'' Stuart Layne,
Boston's executive vice president of marketing and
sales, said yesterday. ``We probably won't see a
schedule until next week, and that's going to dictate
how things are handled. We'll do everything we can to
accommodate our fans.''

Celtics chairman Paul E. Gaston said questions about
the schedule are obvious but ``there are no obvious
answers. We're scrambling to fit as many games as can
reasonably be played.''

The scrambling is necessary because halfway through
this winter season arenas are already booked. The
Celtics, for example, must go on the road for the
middle two weeks in February because ice shows take
over the FleetCenter. And the Celtics must hit the road
again in March because the NCAA men's basketball
tournament is coming to Boston.

Add it up, and you'll see that the Celtics will have to
play three of the first six weeks of an abbreviated
season away from home.

``We'll work it out,'' Gaston told WEEI's Big Show.
Earlier, Gaston had voted with the rest of the NBA's
Board of Governors to ratify the collective bargaining
agreement reached by commissioner David Stern and NBA
Players Association executive director Bill Hunter
Tuesday night. Players had ratified the deal Wednesday.

The Celtics will have to deal with three ticket
constituencies: full-season ticket holders; 10-game
Action Pack ticket holders and single-game ticket
holders.

Layne would not discuss any possible ticket situations,
and there are several. Fans can assume that the NBA
will try to retain as much of the original schedule as
possible because teams have already secured those dates
in their buildings. In Boston's case, that means 39
games, 18 home, 21 away, on the original slate. The
league would have to add 11 games, almost one a week,
for the 13 week season.

Once the schedule is set, the Celtics could refund
tickets already purchased for games in February, March
and April and start from scratch. That's unlikely,
given the time constraints. And businesses are loathe
to return money already in the bank.

A more likely option is that the Celtics will devise a
ticket plan that considers games paid for but yet to be
played, plus additional home dates. The 10-game Action
Pack might become a five-game package. Single-game
tickets could be exchanged another single-game ticket.

Season-ticket holders have received refunds for game
not played in November and will receive refunds for
December and January dates.

Fans might be at a disadvantage when buying tickets
after the new schedule is announced. About 200 players
are free agents, so Boston fans won't know who is
playing for whom when they have to pay up. The Bulls,
for example, have only four players under contract:
Keith Booth, Randy Brown, Ron Harper and Toni Kukoc.
That quartet won't sell out any NBA building.

Ticket holders who made plans around Celtics games
might be among the disadvantaged.

NBA deputy commissioner Russell Granik said the tight
scheduling will force some teams to play on three
consecutive nights. The Celtics will likely be among
that group because they had nine back-to-back
situations on the original schedule. Granik said the
league will try not to cram games into a schedule
because ``there's a limit to what fans like to watch
and to what players can deliver.''

Granik, who participated in a news conference with
Stern and Hunter yesterday in New York, said that
players can start working out next Monday at the
closest NBA training facility, regardless of whether
it's their team's site. Free agents can also use the
facilities. Players can work under the supervision of
trainers and strength coaches. Basketball coaches can't
get involved until training camps open, and no date has
been set for them.

Stern said NBA teams will play a home-and-home
exhibition series for which no admission will be
charged, obviously an attempt to reach out to
disenchanted fans.

In response to a comment about the lack of public
excitement upon the settling of the labor dispute,
Gaston said: ``It's not baloney to say that the players
and owners are committed to bring that spirit back to
the new NBA. I know it sounds like a platitude. We have
to prove it. . . . We have a lot of work to do.''

Rick Pitino, Celtics president and head coach, will
meet the press for the first time since the July 1
lockout began today at noon in the FleetCenter.


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