On foot or by phone, fans chase few tickets
Fans flocked to Fenway Park and tied the Boston phone system in knots yesterday trying to snare the few World Series tickets remaining after Major League Baseball, its corporate sponsors, and season ticket holders received their allotments.
A limited number of World Series tickets, probably fewer than 1,000 for each of the four possible home games, went on sale by phone yesterday afternoon. Calling levels were so high before and after the 3 p.m sale that phone service in parts of the Boston area was temporarily disrupted.
''There were so many calls going to the Red Sox number from all over the country that it did impact the ability of people in the Boston area to make calls," said Jack Hoey, a spokesman for Verizon Corp.
The problem all day was too many people chasing too few tickets. Most of the tickets for the World Series games at Fenway Park were already spoken for before yesterday's sale, with the bulk going to season ticket holders and MLB and its corporate sponsors.
Red Sox officials did not return phone calls yesterday and a MLB spokesman declined to say what the league's allotment of tickets was. The spokesman, Matthew Gould, said the league gets a percentage of tickets to any marquee event, like the All-Star Game or the World Series.
Of that allotment, the league makes tickets available to a large number of groups, including corporate sponsors like Bank of America Corp., and John Hancock Financial Services Inc. Tickets are also made available to league licensees like Magestic Athletic and the New Era Cap Co. The league's broadcast partners are also entitled to tickets.
After other teams in the league, umpires, Red Sox players, management, and season ticket holders receive allotments, very few tickets are left over for regular fans.
Ticket prices, established by MLB, are $190 for box seats; $145 for grandstand seats; $70 for bleacher seats; and $50 for standing room. However, for the desperate, online services such as eBay and StubHub offered tickets ranging from $1,375 for bleacher seats to more than $6,000 for a spot in the .406 Club.
The limited number of tickets available did not discourage throngs of Red Sox fans. Some who had registered via e-mail for a postseason drawing for the chance to purchase tickets were notified yesterday if they had won.
The rest deluged the Red Sox ticket line with calls. Some Boston-area cellphone owners complained their phones stopped working right after that time. At Cingular Wireless, the second-biggest local carrier after Verizon Wireless, up to 30 percent of calls placed by Boston-area subscribers to numbers outside the Cingular network failed to go through during that hour, according to spokeswoman Alexa G. Kaufman.
Likewise, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said many customers in Boston experienced ''fast busy" signals indicating that all calling circuits were in use right after 3 p.m, which required network technicians to scramble to reallocate calling capacity.
Fans also showed up at Fenway Park looking for tickets even though team officials were adamant that tickets would only be available over the phone.
''Tickets by PHONE only," read the sign on the Fenway ticket office. But still, fans lined up.
First in line was Brian Burns, 38, of Charlestown, who left his home around 10 p.m. after Johnny Damon's grand slam gave him a strong feeling the Sox were going to win. He left his sister, Kathleen, who was sitting on the couch kissing a Waterford crystal Red Sox baseball when Burns called a cab.
He arrived minutes later, set up his chair and blankets at the base of the ticket office's steps, and watched the game through the window of Boston Beer Works.
''Can't the real die-hard fans buy a ticket for the series at Fenway Park?" Burns asked. ''I hope they can find it in the bottom of their hearts to open up those doors. I hope they stand by me like I stood by them."
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com. Beth Healy and Peter J. Howe of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 