It’s Open Season on Tickets

In an effort to sell more tickets directly to the fans who will use them, the Angels are cracking down on season-ticket accounts.

With ticket demand at record levels, the Angels are taking aim at customers who buy season tickets then recoup their expense by selling the majority of those tickets at a profit. So, effective next season, customers cannot resell tickets to more than 20 games and must limit the resale price to three times face value.

The Angels have received some complaints since announcing the policy in a letter last week, but marketing director Robert Alvarado said the restriction should not affect the majority of customers. The average customer resells tickets to nine games a season, a team study showed.

“We have a few accounts who are treating their purchases as an investment, a money-maker, if you will,” Alvarado said. “If they’re putting the burden on me to ensure they get it for free, I’ve got a problem with that.”

The Angels also have barred customers from resale via any means other than the ticket exchange feature on the team website, where the team collects a fee for each transaction.

Alvarado acknowledged the Angels aren’t yet sure how to enforce that restriction, given the popularity of EBay and brokers, but he said the team would target significant numbers of sales.

“Are we going after the occasional user? No,” he said.

In addition, the Angels are reviewing large accounts, asking customers to explain why they need so many tickets and how often they might use them all. The Angels might not renew some of those tickets, Alvarado said, in an effort to free seats for the 1,700 people on the waiting list for season tickets. And, he acknowledged, the Angels get no concession and parking revenue when seats are not used.

The Angels sold a record 32,000 season tickets this year. They are on pace to set an attendance record for the fourth consecutive season.

“We’re trying to build the quality of the fan,” Alvarado said.

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The Angels won’t do much when rosters expand Friday. They are expected to activate Curtis Pride as a reserve outfielder and Darin Erstad as a defensive replacement at first base, promote Jeff Mathis as a third catcher and probably recall Chris Bootcheck as an extra reliever.

The Angels prefer to keep players without defined major league roles sharp by keeping them at triple-A Salt Lake rather than stashing them on the Angels’ bench, then recalling them as dictated by injuries or other needs. Salt Lake is headed for the Pacific Coast League playoffs, perhaps through mid-September, with infielders Dallas McPherson and Kendry Morales, outfielder Tommy Murphy and reliever Greg Jones likely to rejoin the Angels at some point.

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Weekend totals against the New York Yankees: 10 hours and 59 minutes, 1,030 pitches and 132,663 tickets sold, a record for a three-game series at Angel Stadium.... Manager Mike Scioscia said the Angels have asked major league officials to review Saturday’s game, in particular the circumstances surrounding Yankee Brian Bruney throwing a pitch behind Juan Rivera.