Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995 TAG: 9501110044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The winter has been kind to the newly christened club in more ways than one. The Avalanche has been greeted by a flurry of interest the Buccaneers never saw in their patch-eyed years. And Opening Day still is three months away.
With a new stadium, new affiliation, new colors and new nickname, the Salem club did expect some increased trade. What the team didn't expect was to have Christmas shoppers spending so many bucks on what used to be the Bucs.
``Never, never have I seen anything like this,'' said Sam Lazzaro, the mustachioed general manager who is celebrating a decade with the Salem club. ``The two weeks before Christmas, we had a steady stream of people in our office. Before, people not only didn't know where our office was, they didn't care.''
The Avalanche's digs are in the same Florida Street building the Bucs, Redbirds and Pirates called home. Except that upstairs, it doesn't look the same. There are more people working. A club that has employed four full-timers and no interns in the off-season now has eight full-timers, two more to be hired soon and a pair of interns.
Boxes are scattered around the floor. The only unoccupied room is the rest room. Phones ring. Fingers type. The current issue of Baseball America goes unread. Who has time?
``Tickets, souvenirs, advertising ... we're selling it,'' Lazzaro said. ``It's been overwhelming, especially considering we don't have a display area. I think it's a combination of things. The new ballpark has people excited, but so does our affiliation with the Colorado Rockies. Even people who aren't baseball fans like our colors.
``Black, silver and purple are hot colors. The Rockies have proven that as the No.1 major-league club in souvenir sales. And I think people are coming around to the nickname, even those who said they didn't like it at first. The logo has helped. People have told us they really like the logo.''
Although the cost of a season box seat has risen $50 to $225, the Avalanche already has sold six times the number of season tickets it had last year at this time to fans who will sit in the same style of seats that occupy Baltimore's Camden Yards. Selling caps, T-shirts and sweat shirts hasn't been difficult, Lazzaro said. Getting them from the manufacturer before the holidays was.
Since the name changed and the merchandise arrived, the Avalanche has gone through most of the 36 dozen sized caps it ordered in home purple and road black. A new shipment is due this week. T-shirts in white and black have gone so well, purple ones are now on sale, too.
There's no evidence of a baseball strike in Salem. ``We hear all people's reasons and grievances on the strike,'' Lazzaro said, ``but it hasn't caused them to keep their wallets in their pockets.''
The Avalanche already has 21/2 times in sales what the Bucs had brought in by this time last year. By the end of this week, the club's preseason sales may surpass last year's Opening Day record.
Salem already owns the current pro baseball streak of 11 consecutive summers of attendance hikes. With a new ballpark, eclipsing last season's 153,575 by 100,000 isn't out of the question.
Not often does an Avalanche roll uphill.
by CNB