City News Service — The
Dodgers will begin a three-game interleague series against the New York
Yankees tonight at Dodger Stadium with the most restrictive
regular-season ticket sales policy in the team’s 53 seasons in Los
Angeles.

Until Tuesday when some scattered single tickets and tickets returned by
sponsors were put on sale via the Twitter website, most fans wanting to
buy a ticket for the series had to buy a seven-game ticket package.
Initially, purchase of a 14-game package was required.

"Forcing people to buy several game packages just rules out most folks
from being able to attend a Dodgers versus Yankees game," said Mark
Reback, a public advocate for the Santa Monica-based group Consumer
Watchdog.

"Professional sports teams should think about the big picture and
realize that fleecing their loyal fans on tickets for one series could
taint the team’s image in the long run with these same fans who may
think twice before buying that $100 jersey next time."

The Dodgers made the decision to sell nearly all tickets to the series
as part of packages because "demand has been higher for this series than
other regular season series," according to Josh Rawitch, the team’s
vice president of communications.

Individual game tickets were made available to season ticket and
mini-plan holders, members of the team’s fan clubs and its followers on
Twitter, Rawitch said.

"While there was not a traditional sale, there were many ways for our
biggest fans that support us year round to purchase
individual tickets for the series," Rawitch told City
News Service.

All three games are expected to sell out, Rawitch said.

The Dodgers’ decision to require purchase of a multiple-game package to
see the Yankee series is "fairly common" in professional sports for
games with high demand, said Howard Forman, a Cal State Fullerton
marketing professor.

"The theory is if you don’t want (the tickets), someone else will get
them," said Forman, whose class conducted a marketing project for the
Dodgers during the 2009 season.

Forman said there is relief to the requirement to buy tickets to other
games to see the Yankees play.

"It is pretty easy to sell tickets you didn’t want" on the various
ticket reselling websites, including one on the Dodgers website, Forman
said.

This is the first official meeting between the Dodgers and Yankees since
2004. The teams have met 11 times in the World Series, producing some
of baseball’s greatest moments.

Tonight’s game will be the first time Dodger manager Joe Torre has
managed against the Yankees since he left them following the 2007
season. Torre managed the Yankees to four World Series championships,
six American League pennants, 10 American League East Division
championships and 12 playoff berths in his 12 seasons with the team.

In an attempt to alleviate traffic congestion, Dodger Stadium’s auto
gates will open earlier than usual — 4:40 p.m. today, 1:40 p.m. Saturday
and 2:40 p.m. Sunday.