Click to see an Adobe Acrobat document showing where fans can buy seats for the mini-game packages. File size = 104K. (Randy Mazzola illustration) | ZOOM |

        There will be fewer choices for Reds' fans buying season tickets in Great American Ball Park.

        While packages for the full season and packages for weekend and weekday games are still available, three of the smaller ticket deals packages that were offered to fans at Cinergy Field have been eliminated. Those packages — the value plan, slammer series and weekend singles — have been replaced by a handful of 20-game deals:

        • Two plans that offer a mix of weekday and weekend dates. The schedules will be similar, and ticket holders will get the package with the best available seating when the team assigns seats this fall.

        • A mix of weekend dates.

        • A mix of weekday dates.

        None of the 20-game deals includes seats are in the most desirable locations in the new ballpark.stadium.

        Fans can only buy seats for the mini-game packages only in four sections: terrace outfield ($15), view level box ($14), view level infield ($11) and view level ($9).

        John Allen, the team's chief operating officer, said the new ticket plans are similar to the existing plan for Cinergy Field plans.

        “We've worked very hard to accommodate fans who can't afford a full-season plan,” Mr. Allen said. “But fans buying full-season tickets are going to get the most seating options.

        “If they're buying partial tickets, it will be set up in separate areas just like it is currently. That's so the best seats in the house don't go unsold.”

        That approach has left some fans fuming.

        Dr. Bob Hamilton, a season- ticket holder for three years, said the team could have worked harder to offer better seats to their loyal fans, whether they're buying full-season packages or smaller packages.

        “I don't think they have any priority. T, the Reds are just trying to sell as many full-game packages as they can,” Dr. Hamilton said. “They're not showing any loyalty to the people that have supported them, and they're alienating loyal fans.”

        Pat McCaffrey, director of season and group sales, said the team expects higher priced tickets — such as those in the terrace infield box ($30), terrace box ($25) and the terrace line ($20) — ---- to sell out.

        “Due to the anticipated increased demand on season tickets, we felt consolidating the packages offered the best opportunity and best variety of seating and pricing options for our fans,” Mr. McCaffrey said.

        That was the case in Pittsburgh, where the Pirates moved from Three Rivers Stadium to PNC Park last year. The Pirates had a 31 -percent increase in season- ticket sales when they moved from their old 55,000-seat facility to the new 38,000-seat ballpark.

        “Obviously, with the increase in full-season ticket base, those areas where our smaller ticket packages were offered were different than in Three Rivers,” said Vic Gregovits, the Pirates' viVice pPresident of mMarketing and bBroadcasting. “Still, in a ballpark built for baseball, the seats are very good.”

        That explanation doesn't fly with John Brinkmann, a 51-year-old Delhi Township man who has had season tickets since 1991. Mr. Brinkmann said fans buying smaller game packages are being forced into the “cheap seats.” Mr. Brinkmann has since found friends to buy a full season of tickets and split them up.

        “I really felt forced into this,” Mr. Brinkmann said. “I didn't like the seats that were offered. So I had to do this or not go to games at all. I don't consider that very fair.”

        The hard feelings aren't limited to fans buying the 20-game season- ticket packages.

        Charles H. Klein has been a continuous season- ticket holder for 65 years, and says the Reds aren't honoring his seniority. Mr. Klein, principal of Topicz distributors in Amberley Village, has asked for seats in the first row behind either dugout.

        But fans already sitting in those sections of Cinergy Field will get first crack at those seats.

        “We've received no confirmation that we'll receive seats where we asked,” said Mr. Klein, 93, who attended his first World Series game in 1919. “I bought season tickets during the Depression, at a time when games were very lightly attended. Sometimes there would be 1,000 or 2,000 people in the stands.”

        Seats for season- ticket holders won't be assigned until this fall. Fans buying season tickets filled out a seat relocation questionnaire, listing preferences such as the section they want to sit in, which side of the stadium they want to be on, and whether they want to be under an overhang.

        The questionnaires had to be returned with a deposit.

        The team will offer fans who missed the deadline the chance to buy season tickets after the initial seat relocations are completed.

        Mr. Allen said architectural differences between the new and old ballparks complicate relocating season- ticket holders.

        For example, the first row in the lower seating bowl inside Cinergy s full season and $100 for partial season packages, by June 21.

        The team will offer fans who missed the deadline the chance to buy season tickets after the initial seat relocations are completed.

        Mr. Allen said architectural differences between the new and old ballparks complicate relocating season- ticket holders.

        For example, the first row in the lower seating bowl inside Cinergy starts 3 1/4 feet above the playing field. The front row in the new ballpark starts a few inches below the playing field.

        “So, a seat in row 10 at Cinergy, fans will be just as close if they're a number of rows behind that at the new ballpark,” Mr. Allen said.

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