Because of demand that is about to reach the equivalent of a club-record 13,500 full-season ticket packages, the Penguins have stopped taking deposits for full- and half-season plans and have begun a waiting list for those plans, team president David Morehouse announced today.

The team wants to hold back some of the 16,940 seats at Mellon Arena for six- and 12-game plans, individual game tickets and for the student rush program.

The previous team record was 12,350 full-season ticket equivalents in 1992-93.

"We could continue to sell full- and half-season tickets at this point, but it's very important to us to make Penguins tickets available to as wide a range of our fans as possible, so we've taken the unprecedented step of cutting off our full- and half-season ticket sales," Morehouse said in a statement. "We are very close to 13,500 full-season equivalents, and we expect to reach that number in the near future as we work with a number of fans who previously placed season ticket deposits. But we still want to have tickets available for fans who can't afford season tickets, or can't commit to 21 or 43 games."

Starting July 9, fans can join the waiting list with a $200 deposit per seat. Six- and 12-game miniplans will go on sale on or about Aug. 8.

For more information, call 412-642-7367 or 1-800-642-7367.