This is from a story that's going to run next week after I talked to Michael Franke:
What does that mean for the fans, as far a ticket prices?
``Last year I think we did a 38-game plan and we're doing a 40-game plan again this year,'' Franke said. ``Included in that will be the regular season, exhibition games and also will be the possibility of an expanded playoff format which we'll be discussing at our summer meetings. It depends whether you have more teams or just to change up what we're doing right now. Maybe we get into a situation where if you have seven or eight teams, maybe the first team gets a bye and maybe the next four teams play for the first round. We're talking about a lot of different things, but that will be determined in June.
``It also opens up for other things, too, that we may have interest in doing in talking to other leagues. Maybe one of these years we'll get an expanded playoff in that will include the winner of one league versus the winner of another league. You just never know.''
Ticket prices will be going up slightly for season-ticket holders and $1 across the board for all general admission tickets, Franke said.
``We were going to go up $2 and we thought that was too much,'' he said. ``We saw a double digit percentage increases in a lot of our expenses this year from insurance, worker's compensation and travel. Like everybody, you just have to figure out a way to cover your expenses. We're hoping to make up a lot of the difference in group sales and in the fans who buy tickets the day of the games.''
