Like apparel and electronics, sports tickets sometimes have to be discounted to be sold.

And Atlanta's teams increasingly are discounting them.

Rich Addicks / raddicks@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

After a disappointing 2007 season, the Falcons lowered the price of upper-level season tickets.

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SPORTS ON SALE A sampling of discount offers or recent price reductions by Atlanta teams: BRAVES • Two-for-the-price-of-one tickets in the upper-level outfield seats for Tuesday games (two tickets for $8) and in the lower-level outfield pavilion seats for Wednesday games (two tickets for $22). • Family value plans (four tickets, four hot dogs, four Cokes, a parking pass and a game program), starting at $59 for Sunday through Thursday games. • A package of tickets to a game, the Georgia Aquarium, Six Flags, Stone Mountain Park and World of Coca-Cola, at savings of up to $52.99 vs. regular prices. • A package that includes two tickets to each of four games, starting at $88 and including a free $25 Chevron gas card. FALCONS Related story: Falcons delay single-game ticket sales Poll • Reduced the price of season tickets on all upper-level seats, as well as on mezzanine-level end-zone seats. Most of the price cuts were $30 or $40 per season ticket. But the top 13 rows in the upper-level sideline and corner sections were slashed from $520 and $420 per season, respectively, to $250. GEORGIA TECH FOOTBALL • Season tickets in the north end zone upper-level seats were reduced from $250 to $150. DREAM • A limited number of seats for weeknight games were recently reduced from $10 to $4. HAWKS • Family-night packages include four tickets and four Chick-fil-A meals, starting at $69. THRASHERS • Two tickets for the price of one to select weekday games in certain areas. RELATED CONTENT SPORTS • More Sports news • More Braves news • More Falcons news • More Georgia Tech news • More Hawks news • More Thrashers news • Atlanta Dream news BUSINESS • Atlanta Business news

The Braves recently added to a long lineup of discount offers, which range from two-for-the-price-of-one outfield seats to four-game packages that come with $25 gas gift cards. The Dream, the new WNBA team, cut the price of some weeknight seats to $4, a play on the price of a gallon of gas. The Falcons trimmed the season-ticket price of all upper-level seats, and Georgia Tech slashed some football season tickets by $100.

Although the price-cutting hasn't reached the prime seats, the summer sale signals a recognition among teams that they must react to the weak economy.

"With gasoline and food prices being what they are, you can't bury your head in the sand," Tech associate athletics director Wayne Hogan said. "You need to give people a value and give them a way to

continue to spend their entertainment dollar, which is squeezed tighter."

Said Braves executive director of marketing Gus Eurton: "We're all feeling the pinch. It's important to us to feel we are providing a value."

One local team isn't feeling the pinch: As usual, demand far exceeds supply for University of Georgia football season tickets, which have not been reduced in price. In fact, to be eligible to buy a new UGA season ticket, a customer must have made a lifetime contribution of at least $10,651 to the athletics program.

Other teams have found customers responsive to discounts.

"As our ad campaign and marketing campaign rolled out," Falcons president Rich McKay said, "we had really good success at the reduced price points."

McKay said the Falcons have "virtually sold out" of their 16,000 season tickets priced at $250, the team's lowest price point, down from $280 last season. And Tech's Hogan said 1,195 new season tickets — "about half" of the Yellow Jackets' total new sales — have been in end-zone seats discounted to $150, down from $250 last year.

The Braves' Eurton said the team's most successful discount offer has been a "stay-cation" package that offers tickets for a game and up to four other Atlanta attractions — the Georgia Aquarium, Stone Mountain Park, World of Coca-Cola and Six Flags. Savings are as much as $52.99, or 37 percent, depending on how many attractions are chosen.

"Realizing the economic times and knowing people may not be going to the beach or flying to California or New York," Eurton said, "we wanted ... to encourage [them] to rediscover what is in Atlanta."

Similar packages were offered last year, but the Braves said sales are up 23 percent so far this year. The packages are selling well to metro Atlantans, Eurton said, and also are being advertised in 10 other markets in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina.

Eurton said the Braves were "ahead of the curve" with value-added packages in the past — such as their two-for-one Tuesday tickets and all-you-can-eat seats — but developed more such offerings this year. Because of the state of the economy, "I think fans are paying more attention to what we have to offer," he said.

"We're not losing fans, I don't think. We have been able to refocus our packages and our platform," Eurton said.

Overall, the Braves say their average attendance through 48 home games is 31,621, down slightly — 1.6 percent — from the same point last season. The drop has been steeper since June 1 — 8.3 percent. That might be partly because of the economy and gas prices, although other variables, particularly the schedule, also are at play.

Nationally, the 30 MLB teams have drawn an average of 32,006 fans per game this season, up less than 1 percent from the same point last year.

The Braves don't disclose ticket sales revenue, so no measure is available of the extent of a shift from higher- to lower-priced seats at Turner Field.

The team last week launched its latest promotion, offering free $25 Chevron gift cards with the purchase of four-game, two-seat ticket packages. Promotions tied to fuel prices are popular these days.

The Dream, Atlanta's WNBA expansion team, recently launched a "Cheaper by the Gallon" promotion, offering a limited number of seats to weeknight games for $4. In the first two games at which the $4 seats were available, more than 300 were sold, according to Dream president Bill Bolen.

"For us, the real story is averaging over 8,000 attendance simply because we are affordable to begin with," Bolen said by e-mail. "To launch a new team in the midst of a really tough economy and manage to get two sellouts and strong consistent attendance despite a [3-19] record — our affordability is certainly part of that story."

In another reflection of price sensitivity, Bolen said the Dream sold out their cheapest season tickets ($149).

Similarly, Georgia Tech said it has sold all but about 225 of roughly 2,000 season tickets priced at $150 in the north end zone, an area dubbed the "Jackets Nest."

When economic times are better, the Jackets figure, maybe those buyers will upgrade.

"It is our philosophy to get fans exposure to the game," Tech's Hogan said. "We think they'll like it, and if they like it enough, they eventually will be interested in moving into a more preferred location."