TIGERTV ONLINE REPORTER

The old Alex Box auction lets fans buy and bid on collectibles while supporting the University with the money it will earn from the sales.

On by going to the auction’s website, baseball fans can place bids on memorabilia from old Alex Box. Some of the most popular items so far have been collectibles, signage and the gold chairs of the stadium. Season-ticket holders have the opportunity to bid on the same gold seats they sat in all season with the option of a collectors package upgrade.

“The seats are a popular item; it’s moving well… We put the most amount of work into those,” Ron McDaniel, owner and president of Maxon Media, the company that maintains the auction, the website and warehouses the items. “It’s really cool for someone to have the opportunity to buy their seats…they’re a conversation piece, not really a collectible.”

The bid for two seats on Tuesday, October 28 was $1,500, but bidders will increase the price throughout the bidding period, which is October 20 through November 20. If season-ticket holders have not bought their seats before that time they will go on sale to the general public.

“This is important to the fans and we wanted to make their memories available to them,” senior associate athletic director Herb Vincent said.

“I appreciate it because it’s letting the fans own a piece of a stadium that saw five national championships,” said sophomore mass communication major and avid LSU baseball fan Taylor Martina. “I would love the old “Baseball at the Box” sign or the baseball shaped gates, just because they’re so iconic of LSU baseball.”

Auction items are put up in groups of nine or ten every Tuesday and are taken down every Thursday with some overlap. Many items coming up to auction soon have been requested by the fans. The items include autographed pieces, the foul poles in the outfield and the Intimidator, the billboard behind the right-field fence highlighting the five years LSU won the college world series.

“Fans will get to own a piece of 70 years of history,” McDaniel said.

The stadium opened in 1938 and was named for Simeon Alex Box, a LSU letterman who died in World War II. On June 9, 2008 LSU defeated UC Irvine 21 to 7, advancing to the College World Series in the last game in Old Alex Box Stadium.

Items can also be bought outright at the Box.

“We’re having a ton of success,” McDaniel said. “Orders are in the triple digits.”

“This is just another way we’re trying to be creative in producing new revenue,” Vincent said. “The more creative ways we can do that, the less we have to contemplate ticket increases in future.”

Vincent also said the athletic department is helping to promote the auction and sale, and that this will increase exposure for the University and its baseball program because the New York Yankees are also currently auctioning off Yankee Stadium memorabilia.

“We’ve never done something of this magnitude,” Vincent said. “By taking on an entire stadium we’re giving fans a chance to show their love of baseball and history of the stadium.”