The NFL Oakland Raiders / Denver Broncos Game's Sold Out. So Why Aren't All The Choice Seats Filled?

I'm watching the first quarter of the Raiders / Broncos game, having elected to stay in and get work done after spending all day at Cal for the Cal - USC game yesterday.

I've gotten into the habit of looking at the stands to see how many people are actually filling the seats at NFL games. Why? I have a theory that a large percentage of tickets are purchased and then resold by ticket brokers. My theory is that this process starts with the firm that has "exclusive" first-sale rights at Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers Games -- TicketMaster.

From observation, it seems some of these tickets are purchased by other brokers, who bid up the price higher. The highest priced tickets? The ones between the 40-yard lines on the first level. The bigger the game, the more likely these tickets are to be resold. Note "re-sold" -- they were already purchased once by a broker, so they remain to be bought by someone else, but at a high price, or to be re-sold yet again.

I think this happened for the Broncos game, so the end result is -- because of the Raiders poor record this year, a set of choice tickets are not resold. But the game's sold out. I also noticed this pattern at the 49ers / Colts game earlier this year.

What's the answer? Well, break up the in-stadium monopoly held by TicketMaster, at least in the Bay Area. The ticket offices of the NFL should place them on an online tickets exchange, like Stubhub, thus lowering the price. The NFL team ticket offices can then set the ticket prices at below face value, and better control the level of prices of tickets from the start. Yes, tickets will still be purchased and resold, but at a lower price rate, increasing the chance that a person with a lower income can afford to get them.

Attorney: Ex-Carolina Panthers cheerleader wasn't having sex

NBCSports.com news services
Updated: 1:23 p.m. ET Nov. 9, 2005
TAMPA, Fla. - An ex-Carolina Panthers cheerleader charged with giving police a false name during her arrest at a bar has denied accounts that she was having sex with another cheerleader in a restroom stall.

Renee Thomas, 20, also accused of hitting a bar patron, is charged with giving a false name and causing harm to another, a third-degree felony punishable by probation or a jail term of up to five years. The second cheerleader, Angela Keathley, 26, is charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

The cheerleaders have been approached by Penthouse with an offer to pose nude for the adult magazine, MSNBC-TV reported Tuesday.

...See the original story with a click here.

Cal Bears QB Joe Ayoob Rumored to Have Received Death Threat

Joe Ayoob, quarterback of the football team at the University of California at Berkeley, reportedly received a death threat. I received this unfortunate information from a Cal Alumni Donor who was sitting next to me at the Cal v. USC football game yesterday.

She -- who I will not identify to protect her -- reports that she is acquainted with the parents of the young man who replaced Cal's record-setting passer Aaron Rodgers, who was the 25th selection of the Green Bay Packers in the 2005 NFL Draft, and that the information came directly from them.

It's no secret that Ayoob has been a disappointing player for the Cal Bears. He was 9 of 19 against USC and eventually removed from play; the woeful statistics were more a product of Ayoob's poor throws and a terrible passing game plan than the Trojans defense. Cal lost 35 to 10.

Still, all of this does not warrant any kind of threat. The FBI should investigate this immediately, if this isn't already happening. I feel that the source of this death threat may be someone with gambling interests. The spread of gambling activity has been aided by the growth of the use of the Internet, and sports programs like those shown on ESPN. For example, the ESPN College Game Day and College Game Day Radio annoucers routinely discuss whether a team will "cover the spread" or what the "over / under" might be.

Indeed, "Bodog.com" a new gambling website was openly promoting itself at the Cal / USC game (in a fine example of ambush marketing), even to the point of hiring 30 scantly-clad young women to handout cup holders, hats, and cards with special offers for those who join the siite. The effort was managed by a sports marketing company called "Level One." How do I know this? Because I talked to some of the women, one of which introduced me to their "manager" who said he worked for Level One.

I'm not associating Bodog with the threat action at all. But it is demonstrative of the rapid mainstream spread of online gambling.

There's a lot of money being spent on what a simple young college player does or may do. I'm not sure the tide can be stemed given the Internet, but I do think some kind of specific action should be taken to protect college athletes, and before someone actually makes good on one of these threats against the life of someone who's barely old enough to drink.