Team’s Tickets a Hot Item : Movie Means Box Office Success for Durham Bulls

Success hasn’t gone to the heads of the Durham Bulls, only to their bank account.

“We’ve sold more season tickets this year than we ever have,” Durham General Manager Rob Dlugozima said. “Just the advance ticket sales for opening night are ahead of what they’ve been.”

Once the movie “Bull Durham” was released, tiny Durham Athletic Park became a mecca for die-hard baseball fans and moviegoers. The 5,000-seat stadium soon became a part of the “things to do in Durham” list.

“What the movie did was make us a tourist attraction,” Durham owner Miles Wolff said. “So many people would come from out of state, and they wanted to come to a Bulls game because they’d seen the movie. So we’re almost becoming a tourist attraction. If you come to Durham or the Triangle, you have to go by the ballpark.”

Wolff, who has for now staved off efforts by Raleigh to gain a minor league franchise, said he would be surprised if the Bulls don’t draw in excess of 200,000 this year.

“The franchise is just so good,” he said.

The interest in the franchise spawned by the movie hasn’t subsided in the least. The Bulls opened a second souvenir shop in a Durham mall with designs on luring Christmas shoppers. The store is still open, and Dlugozima said it will stay in business awhile longer.

Sales of Bulls’ souvenirs--caps, T-shirts and jackets--are not only continuing well locally, but Dlugozima says he is receiving as many as 20 phone calls a day from faraway places. Officials also are advertising their goods in a national sports publication and are awaiting more requests now that the movie has been released on videocassette.

“Anybody who has a relative living in Durham asks them to get a Durham Bulls cap,” Wolff said. “I think that will continue through this year.”

The movie version of the Bulls struggled before Nuke LaLoosh unleashed his fastball on the league and Crash Davis took him to school on matters on and off the field.

Last season, the real Bulls went 82-58 but failed to make the Carolina League playoffs. Manager Grady Little said because of the glut of talent in the Atlanta Braves organization, the Bulls consider themselves a threat to win the league title.

“I think we’ve got a shot at it, as good a shot as any team that’s ever been in Durham,” Little said.

One reason for Little’s optimism is the response of the players who are moving to Durham for the season.

“They see the kind of club we’ve got and the kind of people they’re going to play in front of. They come in with a smile on their face,” Little said. “That’s nothing but good for me.”