Padres season-ticket holder: “These tickets are gold.”

Hope everyone had a good holiday week.

It’s nearly time for the Winter Meetings, where the action will pick up for sure for the Padres. I’ll be leaving on Sunday and, as usual, will give you the rundown from Indianapolis on Padres.com and Twitter: @FollowThePadres, your stops for all things Padres.

Anyway, I wrote a story last week about the bump the team is experiencing in season-ticket sales. The team passed 71 percent on their season ticket renewals last week, well ahead of the 55 percent mark from all of last season. Additionally, they’ve sold more new season tickets so far than all of last year.

In a down economy and with a team that has had two consecutive losing seasons, that’s pretty impressive. What’s the draw? Fans told me it’s the tickets themselves and the chance to get seats that would not normally be available to them.

“Tickets were available that I wouldn’t dream would be available,”
season-ticket holder Dan Holsenback said. “I am 10 feet from the owner’s box. My son is two
years and nine months old. He’s a little wiggly for baseball now, but
he won’t be in a few years.

“These tickets are gold. There’s not much upgrading I’ll ever need to do.”

– Corey Brock, Padres.com, Twitter: @FollowThePadres