The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Spring training ticket prices soaring amid scarce supply
Banana Leaf Thai and Bar opened in mid-january.
Ticket prices are soaring on the secondary market for Braves spring training games as a result of reduced capacity at Cooltoday Park in North Port, Fla.
The average secondary-market list price for tickets to the Braves’ 14 home exhibition games currently is $114, up 119% from an average of $52 a year ago, according to data provided Thursday by Jesse Lawrence, founder of ticket search-engine Ticketiq.
The Braves are scheduled to play their first Grapefruit League home game of the year Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins, and prices for tickets to that game range from $50 to $235 on reseller
Stubhub (as of Thursday afternoon). Prices were similar at several other resale sites.
The Braves have said they plan to limit the seating capacity of Cooltoday Park to about 1,800. That’s 22.5% of the stadium’s full capacity of 8,000 and will allow for at least six feet of distance between pods of occupied seats amid the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
Before Tuesday’s first home game, the Braves will open their Grapefruit League schedule with two road games, playing the Tampa Bay Rays in Port Charlotte, Fla., on Sunday and the Boston Red Sox in Fort Myers on Monday.
Across the Braves’ home spring training schedule, the
“get-in price” on the secondary market — the cheapest available ticket for each game — ranged as of Thursday from $24 to $90, depending on date and opponent, Lawrence said. Secondary-market prices can fluctuate frequently.
Few spring training tickets have been available to the general public directly from the Braves because most seats in the limited-capacity configuration went to season ticket holders. On Thursday, the team’s official tickets website showed all 14 home exhibition games as “sold out now,” and fans were advised to “check back soon.” The Braves have said they may be able to make more tickets available to the public if players don’t use their full allotments for games.
When Bua Thai and Sushi in Town Brookhaven shuttered in December, the executive chef and general manager didn’t hit the pavement looking for employment. Instead, Awut Pengpis, better known as Chef Woody, and Supakorn “Jobi” Thanasongtrakul decided to open a place of their own.
Woody had run the kitchen since Bua’s debut nearly a decade earlier, and Jobi was among his staff for the past six years. The chef had hoped to hit the 10-year mark and then embark on his restaurant venture. The closure of Bua was “perfect timing,” Jobi said.
The pair, both Thai natives who arrived in the U.S. around 2005,
ended up deciding on the space in Sandy Springs’ City Walk that had been vacated last summer by Bogartz Food Artz.
Woody and Jobi had a custom wok station installed, as well as making minor cosmetic changes and COVID-19 safety enhancements, including the addition of plexiglass partitions between tables.
Since its mid-january debut, Banana Leaf Thai and Bar has seen a steady increase in business despite opening without advertising and with limited seating. Besides respectable takeout traffic, there has been an uptick in on-premises dining; nearly 100 reservations were on the books nightly Valentine’s weekend. “That surprised me a lot,” said Jobi, who manages day-to-day operations.
Jobi happily was surprised by other developments, like diners’ affinity for Woody’s seafood preparations. Banana Leaf serves plenty of familiar Thai meat and poultry dishes, and a handful of vegan offerings, but each of its four specialty plates features seafood. That includes pla sam rod, featuring chunks of crispy fried snapper surrounded by red bell and bird’s eye chile peppers in a sweet and sour sauce over jasmine rice. It makes for a dramatic presentation and a taste bud-satisfying balance of sweet, sour and spicy.
Seafood is Woody’s specialty, one he has showcased throughout his career, including as the executive chef of Thai restaurant Basil at the fivestar Sheraton Grande in Bangkok. Additional dishes featuring creatures of the sea are in the works, including a pad Thai rendition
with lobster.
The goal, Jobi said, is to offer dishes you don’t see at other Thai restaurants in the area. “Some Thai places do Thai food more like Chinese-style or American-thai,” he said. “We keep it as an authentic Thai taste.”
Beef and chicken dominate the meat selections, but duck and lamb dishes soon will make an appearance. Diners can raise a glass to that expanded menu — along with the debut of a full bar — at the restaurant’s grand opening, in mid-march.
Customers who stick to delivery currently miss out on desserts, like mango sticky rice and tempura ice cream, because they don’t travel well. “I prefer customers to have mango sticky rice fresh,” Jobi said. “If it takes too long, the food changes. Sticky rice can get tough.” But, those with a sweet tooth can look forward to a selection of transportable desserts that soon will be added to the online menu.
And, as they keep thinking of ways to satisfy takeout and dine-in customers, Jobi is looking forward to the day when “we can get the vaccine along to all people, and we can put more tables back in.”
A mother, crazed with hunger, threatens to kill and eat her daughters. Her daughters find bread for her, but it’s not enough. They all agree to lie down and sleep until Judgment Day. The daughters sleep forever, but their mother vanishes.
“Trouble understanding fractions? Our help line is open 24/7.” — scrawled on a restroom wall
“Half of my finesses should work,” Unlucky Louie griped to me in the club lounge. “Only a small fraction of them actually do.”
When Louie was declarer at today’s four hearts, he lost the first two diamonds, ruffed the third diamond, drew trumps and led a club to dummy’s 10. East took the jack and led a spade. Louie’s queen won, but when he led a second club to dummy’s queen, East produced the king. Down one.
“West might have held the ace of diamonds or a club honor,” Louie sighed, “but not when I’m declarer.”
Sometimes it’s not the finesses you take but the order in which you take them. After Louie draws trumps, he should lead a spade to his queen. He cashes the ace, leads a trump to dummy and ruffs the last spade. Louie then leads a club to dummy’s 10, and when East takes the jack, he is end-played. He must return a club into the A-Q or concede a fatal ruff-sluff.
DAILY QUESTION: You hold: ♠ 964 ♥ KJ94 ◆ K 83 ♣ A Q 10. Your partner opens one diamond. The next player bids two spades, preemptive. What do you say?
ANSWER: You have enough values for game. A bid of three hearts would suggest a longer suit. You might survive a bid of three clubs, but your best call is a negative double, showing, by agreement, heart length but the wrong type of hand to bid three hearts. Discuss negative doubles with your partner.