The best game seats -- and beyond

For a particular breed of football fan -- those with plenty of cash -- the New England Patriots will bring them the trip of their dreams: a private jet and a luxury vacation to the south of France, Napa Valley, or Cabo San Lucas.

The exclusive offers, mailed to holders of Patriots' premium seats last week, go well beyond the tony leather chairs, overcooked hot dogs, and flat-screen television sets that have become standard features in luxury suites at sports stadiums around the country.

With suiteholders committing huge sums of money -- a ticket to Gillette Stadium's Fidelity Investments Clubhouse costs between $5,000 and $7,500 a year, while suites run up to $500,000 -- the Patriots hope exclusive access to premium amenities will boost the loyalty of their wealthiest clients, no matter how the team performs on the field.

Already, the Patriots offer premium ticket holders a place on the team's charter plane, so they can travel to away games with the players. Executives say they will introduce more amenities each year, even if they are entirely unrelated to football.

Competition is intensifying among sports venues in Boston and nationally to attract and retain the wealthiest fans. Gillette Stadium already boasts some of the most luxurious seats in the city. But the Red Sox are hard at work on a new premium seating area, called the EMC Club, to open at Fenway Park in 2006, while executives at the TD Banknorth Garden plan to sink millions of dollars into enhancing the fan experience in the Celtics' and Bruins' home.

Thus the premium seating arms race has shifted to offering amenities -- the more exclusive, the better. The Celtics give autographed basketballs to their richest fans, as well as invite them to the team's draft, where executives explain their picks as they make them. This season, the team will introduce seats on a special courtside bench for $10,000 per game, a package that includes a tour of the locker room and chance to eat in the owners' private dining room.

Also at the Garden, about 40 premium seatholders took a trip with hockey legend Ray Bourque to Montreal last year, which included a Bruins game and dinner at his favorite pizza restaurant. This year, a select few will accompany Cam Neely to his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Members of the Red Sox's new EMC Club, where seats cost $275 a game, will get access to a ''concierge" to book them tickets in other stadiums.

''The teams have to justify the higher price," said Peter Dorfman director of sports and advisory for Citigroup Inc.'s private bank. ''The competition from other venues means teams are being forced to be more creative in what they offer, how they price the premium seating, what they throw into the package. It's extending beyond normal amenities."

During the Patriots' game against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, one premium ticket holder used the Patriots' new private jet service -- CharterAuction of Quincy -- to rent four planes to fly business clients to the game in style. The planes, which cost $2,250 to $5,200 an hour, include leather furniture and a menu ranging from a chicken breast stuffed with provolone cheese, porcini mushrooms, oven-dried tomatoes, and arugula to a Thai chili and soy marinated roasted lamb rack.

The Patriots offer the jets to their premium seat holders at a discount. They also partnered with a luxury vacation company, Dream Catcher, which has a stock of multimillion-dollar homes all over the world, to offer lower rates. Patriots premium ticket holders pay for 30 days in homes valued at more than $3 million apiece, where they can sip chardonnay in Napa Valley next to a vineyard or walk the golf courses at Kiawah Island. The discounted cost: a $255,000 one-time membership deposit, plus $8,500 for the first year and $17,000 annually after that.

Luxury retailers love the idea of access to an exclusive list of wealthy customers. But the idea makes sense for the Patriots as well because the team can offer its wealthiest fans exclusive benefits they cannot get anywhere else, said the team's chief marketing officer, Lou Imbriano.

''We believe we can't exist in wins and losses," he said. ''If we're winning, people will come no matter what. We want people to feel the value is robust whether we're winning or losing."

Richard Krezwick, chief executive of the TD Banknorth Garden, said his strategy is to offer wealthy fans ''opportunities that you can't buy." Those fans, in turn, are happy to pay the steep cost for premium tickets.

The obsession with attracting wealthy fans with premium amenities dates back at least to the 1990s, when Camden Yards in Baltimore and other similar ballparks began to spring up around the country, sports business specialists said. Team owners discovered that they could sell luxury suites and seating at these new arenas at high prices, making the stadiums spectacularly profitable.

The New York Yankees, for example, plan to build a new stadium in the Bronx next door to the current Yankee Stadium. It will actually have fewer seats than the current ballpark, but the team plans to build between 50 and 60 luxury suites, which should help make it far more profitable.

''The idea was to take advantage of corporate dollars for sponsorships, buying luxury boxes, club seats, advertising, and to cater to the biz community -- the people who had more money," said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in Northampton who studies sports. ''Gentrifying the ballpark experience provided more revenue to the team."

Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com.