Opening Day at Fenway Sees New Seats And No Meat For Catholics
BOSTON (AP) -- New seats on the right-field roof at Fenway Park, complete with table service, waiters and waitresses, a full menu and some food and beverages built into the price of the ticket, will cost Red Sox fans as much as $100 a game.
The 192 seats, which must be purchased in groups of four, matching the new section's seating, went on sale at 2 p.m. Thursday on the Internet, with registration closing at 11 p.m. next Monday.
The tickets are $75 per seat for 64 home games, and $100 a seat for 17 high-profile games against the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies and Opening Day. The ticket prices include $100 in drinks and food per table.
In addition, 150 standing standing-room tickets, priced $30 for the 17 premium games and $25 for the remainder, also will be sold in the same fashion as the seats.
Only one entry per applicant will be permitted to obtain what the Red Sox call a "virtual wristband." Those chosen randomly by computer will be notified on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, and then
given a randomly selected window the following weekend (7 p.m. Friday to 3 p.m. Saturday) to buy either "The Roof" table seats or the standing-room tickets, said Mike Dee, the team's chief operating officer.
Seats above the old park's Green Monster left-field wall went on sale last season for $50 each. Monster seat prices for this season are expected to be announced within a week.
The Roof section's sponsor is Budweiser. Meanwhile, Opening Day ticket holders this year who are Catholic face a dilemma: the Boston Archdiocese said since the afternoon game against the Toronto Blue Jays falls on Good Friday, they must refrain from eating meat, including hot dogs, sausages and pepperoni pizza.
"We're already getting all kinds of requests for dispensation to eat meat," said the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, a spokesman for the archdiocese. However Coyne said that after a meeting to discuss the requests, Boston church leaders decided a baseball game was too weak an excuse to duck the no-meat rule.
"I would hope it was just an oversight when they were doing the schedule," Coyne told the Boston Herald. "I think it's very insensitive to the huge number of people who are Christians and fans."
In 1995 and 2000, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, then the head of the archdiocese, allowed local Catholics to eat meat when St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday during Lent.
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