12 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 9, 1994 AP PHOTO The Giants raised their ticket prices more than any other NFL team in 1994. NFL prices keep iLsing NEW YORK (AP)- A day at an NFL game for a family of four remains the most expensive outing in pro sports, averaging $184.19, according to Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-based newsletter. The cost represents a 6.3 percent increase from last season, when the average was $173.37, and includes four average-priced tickets, two small beers, four small sodas, four hot dogs, park- ping for one car, two game programs -and two twill caps. The biggest contributor to the NFL's increase was an 8.2 percent rise in average ticket prices to $31.05, the largestone-year boostsince 1981,when Team Marketing Report began track- ing such statistics. Beer went up 7 percent, with the ,hiladelphia Eagles charging the most, .$4.75 for a 14-ounce cup. The San Francisco 49ers, with an _ verage ticket price of $39.75, have the NFL's highest average cost for a fam- ily of four for the fourth consecutive year - $236, 14 percent higher than jast year. The Green Bay Packers, whose average ticket price is $26.13, have the lowestaverage cost, $151.02. The Cin- cinnati Bengals are the second-least expensive team to see with an average cost of $163.22. Then come the India- napolis Colts at $164.90 and the New Orleans Saints at $167.83. The NBA had a Fan Cost Index of $168.78 during the 1993-94 season, with the average ticket price at $27.12. Major league baseball's 1993 Fan Cost Index was $95.80 and its average ticket price was $10.45. Football's first $40 ticket belongs to Philadelphia, with the league aver- age at $31.05, an increase from $28.68 last year. That helped the Eagles be- come the second-most expensive team with a Fan Cost Index of $216, fol- lowed by the New York Giants at $213.35 and the Los Angeles Raiders at $201.27. The cheapest ticket in the league is $25, charged by the New York Jets. The Giants had the biggest increase in ticket prices this year, to $35.59, a 23.8 percent rise, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers right behind with a22.9 percent boost, up to $29.57. Sixteen teams increased ticket prices this season and nine teams froze ticket prices from a year ago - the ArizonaCardinals, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay, India- napolis Colts, the Raiders, the Los Angeles Rams, the Jets and the Wash- ington Redskins. Some teams held off because they make changes only every few years. The three teams decreasing aver- age ticket prices were the Atlanta Fal- cons, Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints. Irvan on fast road to recovery after crash RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - It was one of the best phone calls Dale Earnhardthas everreceived. ErnieIrvan was on the line. Earnhardt, the six-time Winston Cup champion, revealed Thursday that he got a call at home Wednesday night from Irvan, who received severe head injuries in a crash last month at Michi- gan International Speedway. "He's real sharp," said Earnhardt, who is preparing for Saturday night's Miller Genuine Draft 400 at Richmond International Speedway. "I figured he might be a little slow, but he sounded great. "Man, it was just so good, so good, to hear him like that." Irvan has been moved out of inten- sive care at an Ann Arbor hospital and has been telling friends hewants to race again. "He was real sure about one thing," Earnhardt said. "He kept saying, 'I ain't retiring. I ain't gonna retire.' " Earnhardt said he was very sur- prised to pick up the phone and hear Irvan on the other end, and even more surprised to hearhow lucid he sounded. 'He was real sure about one thing. He kept saying, "1 ain't .retiring.) ain't gonna retire"' - racer Dale Earnhardt on Ernie Irvan Earnhardt, who had visited Irvan just after the crash, said Mark Martin and Benny Parsons visited him at the hospital on Wednesday. "They were having a big old time and joking around and somebody said, 'Let's call Earnhardt.' And the next thing I know, Ernie's on the phone," Earnhardt said. Irvan, who received head and lung injuries when his car slammed into a wall during practice Aug. 20, was moved to a regular room on Wednes- day, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital offi- cials said Thursday in a recorded state- ment. His condition was upgraded over the weekend from serious to fair and he also was removed from a ventilator. He regained consciousness Aug. 27. Hospital spokeswoman Margo L. Burrage said Irvan began taking short walks in the hospital last week. He will remain hospitalized indefinitely and there are no immediateplans to transfer him to a hospital near his North Caro- lina home. Players Association head Donald Fehr answers reporters' questions regarding the players' idea for a settlement; instead of a salary cap, a taxation plan was suggested. A decision on the fate of the season may be made today. Baseball seasvon still possiblea playrers offYer'aaton' proposal NEW YORK (AP) - With the season just a day away from being canceled, striking baseball players de- livered a "taxation" plan to owners yesterday and hoped it would be ac- cepted in place of a salary cap. Players presented their idea to own- ers during a 30-minute meeting in the early evening, and owners said they would review it overnight. "Ifthere'sasettlementwithinreach, or a possibility of that coming, I don't think there's atime frame on this," Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Brett But- ler said. Soon after the proposal was deliv- ered, acting commissioner Bud Selig said in Milwaukee that the deadline, which he set last week, "still applies." "Everything is as it's been all along," he said in a telephone inter- view. Both sides had said they expected a formal bargaining session to take place yesterday, but it never developed. Players met with their lawyers and economists for most of the day at the union office in Manhattan. They then walked three blocks to the commissioner's office where three union lawyers delivered the "concept" along with Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser, Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jay Bell, Texas Rangers pitcher Kevin Brown and Oakland Athletics catcher Terry Steinbach. "Togo without apostseason would be devastating to the game," Butler said. "Nobody is going to win and nobody is winning right now." The proposal, according to the union, is based on a framework similar to the revenue-sharing agreement own- ers adopted last January. Instead of a salary cap, however, it includes a taxa- tion concept in which clubs could have any payroll they wanted, but would be forced to share a larger amount of lo- cally generated revenue as their pay- rolls increased. "They've got to have a chance to look it over," Brown said. Negotiations have taken on a sense of urgency since Selig announced the deadline last Friday. The strike, which began Aug. 12 and enters its fifth week Friday, threat- ens to prevent the World Series from being played for the first time since 1904. It is baseball's eighth work stop- page since 1972. A group of three team officials met with union lawyers late Wednesday night to discuss the concepts the union was considering. Union head Donald Fehr said the ideas came about from additional information owners provided to players at the start of the Labor Day weekend. After that meeting ended at about midnight, Colorado Rockies owner Jerry McMorris and Boston Red Sox chiefexecutive officerJohn Harrington expressed hope that perhaps the season could be saved. The full owners' group, which also includes Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, Atlanta Braves presi- dent Stan Kasten, former St. Loui* Cardinals CEO Stuart Meyer and Mil- waukee Brewers vice president Wendy Selig-Prieb, spent Thursday at the commissioner's office awaiting word from the union. "I'm sitting here anxiously await- ing," Philadelphia Phillies owner Bill Giles said from his office in Veterans Stadium. Eugene Orza, the union's No. $ official, said players didn't present a formal plan because "we're still trying to get accurate numbers." Fehr did not attend Thursday evening's meeting, and the role of management negotiator Richard Ravitch was unclear. In recent days, Ravitch's role appears to have waned asMcMorris and Harrington's involve- ment increased. Owners presented their salary cap proposal on June 14, but the union has said it never will accept the idea. Own- ers repeatedly have insisted that they need cost certainty, but players have said they like the free-market system of free agency and salary arbitration that has increased the average salary from $51,501 in 1976to$1,188,679onopen- ing day this year. Five more games were wiped ou* Thursday, increasing the total to 357, more than 15 percent of the season. A settlement Friday probably would al- low players to return to the field on Sept. 16or Sept. 19, depending on how many days of workouts the sides agree to. 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