Arizona State officials, hoping to ensure their...

Arizona State officials, hoping to ensure their college football program won’t suffer next fall, have told season ticket-holders they must buy tickets for the 1988 season to have first refusal rights to obtain season tickets for the National Football League Cardinals.

When St. Louis Cardinals’ owner Bill Bidwell announced Jan. 15 that he will move his club to Phoenix and play home games at Arizona State’s 70,000-seat stadium, last season’s Sun Devil season ticket-holders were thought to have first-refusal rights behind season ticket-holders for the near-defunct United State Football League’s Arizona Outlaws.

Renewal notices sent to the school’s 55,000 season ticket-holders said all accounts paid in full for the 1988 ASU football season will be released for NFL consideration.