Browns fans are being invited to slip into a stadium seat, check out the views and buy into the hope that the losing will finally stop.
The Browns are hoping the team's four-game win streak at the end of the 2009 season will prompt fans to come out for a ticket "open house" on June 12 at Cleveland Browns Stadium.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns fans are being invited to slip into a stadium seat, check out the views and buy into the hope that the losing will finally stop.
Browns Stadium becomes an open house Saturday, June 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., for a "select-a-seat" event. Fans can choose seats for full or partial season ticket packages for the 2010 season. The best available seats will be tagged.
Admission and parking, in the North Port Authority lot, are free. Fans should enter through BrownsTown on the north side of the stadium.
Of the stadium's 72,300 seats, the number of season tickets held slipped to about 55,000 last season from 60,000 the year before. When the Browns started 1-11 before winning their last four games in 2009, the team played under the threat of having home games blacked out on local television.
Still, said Jim Ross, the Browns' new senior vice president of business development, many fans are surprised to learn that season tickets are even available. The impression has been that the stadium is sold out, because when the Browns returned in 1999, it was.
Season tickets range from $32 to $85 per seat in the general seating area, and $126 to $280 on the club seat level. Season tickets also require the one-time purchase of a permanent seat license, which ranges from $250 to $1,500 per seat, based on location.
Three-game season ticket plans -- in which fans can choose menu-style from three different groupings of opponents -- and season tickets in the Dawg Pound don't require PSLs.
The Browns didn't raise season ticket prices this season, although whether to raise ticket prices for individual games is still being weighed, Ross said.
In 2009, the average NFL ticket cost $75, according to Team Marketing Report in Chicago, which tracks fan costs. The Browns had the NFL's second-lowest average ticket price ($54.65), next to Buffalo ($51.24).