Just Pay Up, Baby

Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis no doubt holds the record for shuffling a professional football team between two cities. Now he has another dubious achievement.

A survey by Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-based newsletter, says the Raiders have become the first professional sports team--let alone National Football League franchise--to break the $50 mark on the average ticket price for a game.

The Raiders $51 average is 62.8% higher than the $31.32 average Davis charged last year at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

According to the survey, the next highest is $40 for the Philadelphia Eagles. The NFL average is $33.39.

The Raiders also charge $7 for a program, compared to a $3.80 league average, and $18 for a cap, compared to a $13.56 league average, the newsletter says.

To be fair, the newsletter notes that Davis only charges $3.50 for a beer, less than the league average of $3.54, and $1.50 for a soda, less than the $1.75 average.

Cosmic Thoughts

Under the category of You Never Know What You’ll Find on the Internet. . . .

Time Warner hasn’t put out a whole lot of facts about its prospective acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System, but it is putting out some other intriguing ones.

The media and entertainment conglomerate, often frustrated by its press coverage, recently established a “Factfinder” service on the World Wide Web offering company news and even speeches by its chairman, Gerald M. Levin.

Included is a recent commencement address at the University of Denver in which Levin lightheartedly ponders the idea of an asteroid wiping out civilization.

Levin said he was at a newsstand in which the only non-O.J. Simpson tabloid headline predicted an asteroid would wipe out Earth, so he summoned a thick file on the subject from Time Warner’s library.

“I’m willing to bet that in the next few years, as we draw nearer to the year 2000, predictions about things like killer asteroids are going to become extremely popular,” Levin said.

Silent Partner

Time Warner’s biggest shareholder--liquor and entertainment giant Seagram Co.--hasn’t been happy at recent developments since a Turner acquisition would dilute the company’s nearly 15% stake. But there is a positive Time Warner development for Seagram Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr.

The company’s Atlantic Records label has launched the debut album by pop singer Bruce Roberts, Bronfman’s longtime songwriting partner. Indeed, Bronfman played a major role in the album, although you wouldn’t know it from album notes that make no reference to him.

Bronfman, under the pseudonym Junior Miles (a combination of his Jr. and his middle name), co-wrote the title song “Intimacy,” and also “When Love Goes” and “The Man who Loves You.”

Bronfman’s copyright entity is listed on the notes as Boozetunes, no doubt a light reference to his Seagram connection.

In expressing thanks to various people, the first person Roberts lists is Efer, Bronfman’s nickname among his family and a handful of longtime friends.