Cost-cutting wasn't factor for tickets' look

Some of you wrote e-mails to me the past two days, questioning why the Bobcats sent out generic-looking tickets to their season-ticket holders.

The Bobcats say that wasn’t a cost-saving measure, but rather an urgent reaction when a custom printer went out of business.

According to the team, Mercury Graphics printed tickets for about 10 NBA teams, including the Bobcats. They recently went out of business following a strike. Knowing they had to get tickets into the hands of their customers before the regular season, the Bobcats chose speed over style and printed those generic tickets.

In these times when the Bobcats are so cost-conscious, I can see why some season-ticket holders wondered about this decision. But a team spokesman told me a letter was included in the ticket packages, explaining the pinch the Bobcats were in when Mercury Graphics went out of business.

Also on the topic of fan relations: I hear not every cable outlet in the Carolinas carried FSN South’s telecast of the Bobcats’ preseason game in Orlando. It will be similarly spotty for the telecast of Saturday’s exhibition against the Atlanta Hawks.

This isn’t a Bobcats issue, it’s an FSN South issue. Fox is in negotiations with non-Time Warner cable operators about televising Bobcats games. There’s a surcharge to do that, and it’s still an open question how many

Carolinas cable operators will agree to pay that surcharge by the time the regular season begins.