Some of you have asked where season ticket sales are in relation to previous years, so I got a few numbers straight from UW officials.

As of today, the Huskies have sold 42,154 season tickets for the 2007 season. That's 444 shy of what the Huskies sold for all of the 2006 season, when the final total was 42,598 (the total on this date a year ago was 41,718).

The Huskies figure they will sell another 1,000 or so season tickets, so they assume they will have an overall increase by the end of the season.

Mini-plans and presale of single-game tickets are also ahead of a year ago --- each likely due to the attractiveness of the schedule, which features Boise State and Ohio State in non-conference play.

Last year, 952 mini-plans were sold for the season for what was then a three-game plan. This year, 1,536 tickets mini-plans have been sold to date for what is a four-game package.

Regarding single-game tickets, last year 2,000 had been sold to date. This year, 10,400 have been sold to date (apparently mostly for the Boise State, Ohio State and WSU games).

Currently, single-game tickets are only available to groups that buy more than 20 or to season-ticket holders who want extra tickets to certain games and don't become available to the general public until July 30.

Given UW's home schedule, which some observers have called maybe the best in school history and part of an overall schedule that is generally judged to be among the toughest in the country, the Huskies were hoping to sell more tickets this year.

And while there may not be much of an increase from last year, UW officials they say they are pleased with the numbers to date, noting that the last two seasons had each seen decreases of about 8-9 percent from the previous year.

"The good news is we are not losing ticket holders,'' UW athletic director Todd Turner said. "I think we have arrested that slide and are headed back in a positive direction.''

By way of comparison, the most season tickets sold in any year since 1995 came in 2002 when 56,267 were purchased.

Since then, season ticket sales have steadily declined as has UW's record --- 2002 also marks Washington's last winning season.

The Huskies have kicked off several new initiatives designed at selling more tickets, including a Top Dawg Challenge, which is a rewards program encouraging existing season-ticket holders to provide referrals; and doubling the size of the telephone sales staff and targeting prospective ticket buyers, such as former season-ticket holders.

Overall, UW officials say they expect that the final season average attendance will likely be markedly better than it was last season, when the Huskies drew 57,483 per game.