Seattle Seahawks Sellout Season Tickets - 61,000 With a Wait List of 2,000 orders - Seattle P.I.

The Seattle Seahawks have sold out their season tickets this year and for the first time. It's a great sign that beyond just winning, Seattle has responded to the total product -- team, stadium, and marketing. The stadium's a great place to watch a football game. Probably the best place. The video below captures all the excitement of the Seahawks' victory over the Carolina Panthers for the 2005 NFC Championship. Here's the Seattle P.I. Article and video



Seahawks Notebook: Season-ticket sales top 61,000
Fan base best in Hawks' history

By CLARE FARNSWORTH
SEATTLE P-I REPORTER

KIRKLAND -- The good vibes just keep on coming for the Seahawks.

One day after passing out rings to commemorate the franchise's first conference championship in 2005, the club announced another milestone Thursday directly related to the unprecedented success from last season.

More than 61,000 season tickets have been sold for the 2006 season at Qwest Field, creating the highest season-ticket base in franchise history and guaranteeing that every game this season will be sold out.

The remaining 4,000-5,000 individual game tickets will go on sale July 29.

"We feel great. This has been a long time coming," CEO Tod Leiweke said. "It was a dream -- it was when the stadium was built, it was a dream when Paul Allen acquired the team.

"To announce something like this is really a sign of the organization coming of age, but it's also a sign that our fans are truly some of the best in all of sports and certainly in the NFL," he added.

More than 19,000 new season-ticket packages were sold, a franchise high, and there is a waiting list of 2,000 to purchase season tickets -- a first since the early 1990s.

The Seahawks have come a long way since those games in 2002 and 2003 when the seats behind the visiting team's bench were filled with fans wearing the opposing team's colors.

"We used to draw this kind of crowd to announce we were selling out a game," said Leiweke, who was surrounded by reporters and TV cameras.

"I have a distinct memory of that Steelers game my first year (2003) and seeing all the black and gold," he said. "It was a great disappointment."

That made the sellout announcement a little sweeter.

The team renewed 97 percent of its season tickets, the highest since the late 1980s, and the club level is sold out for the first time since the new stadium opened in 2002.

"One of my goals is always to create a football team that the fans can be proud of," coach Mike Holmgren said after a practice that ended the first week of the team's final minicamp.

That was the case in 2005, when the Seahawks went 8-0 at home in the regular season and added two postseason wins at Qwest Field, including a victory over the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship game.

"If I talk to opposing coaches and some players that came in, they say it's a very difficult place to play," Holmgren said. "The players respond to a crowd like that. And the fact that those fans now will be Seahawks fans, instead of a good block of tickets going to our visiting team, that's all very special."