With one eye on the sagging economy and the other on the sagging fortunes of the club on the field, the Pirates today will announce a freeze on season-ticket prices today and will offer four new "value-priced" full-season plans for 2009.

The Pirates also will offer an extended payment plan -- at no interest -- for all renewing and new season-ticket holders.

The Pirates, whose streak of not raising season-ticket prices for seven consecutive years is the longest current streak in Major League Baseball, will begin selling season tickets today.

Could be a tough sell.

There's the economy. Then, there's that nettlesome "elephant in the bleachers" of 16 consecutive losing seasons.

"We do not take the support of our season ticket-holders for granted," Pirates president Frank Coonelly said yesterday. "We recognize the economy that we're all facing is a very difficult time. I think anybody in any entertainment business has to be concerned that the economy is such that you could see some decrease in certain areas of your business, so it's certainly a concern for us. It's one that we're proactively trying to get out in front of."

"The value-price plans is one way we're going to try to help people through that," said Lou DePaoli, the team's new executive vice-president and chief marketing officer.

For example, a season ticket in Section 320 in the upper deck behind home plate cost $13 per game last season. In 2009, that same seat will cost $9.86 per game, the prorated cost of a season-ticket plan in that section that will sell for $799.

That area, identified as Infield Grandstand, runs from Section 309 through Section 323, from above the edge of the infield dirt on the first-base side around to the edge of the infield dirt on the third-base side.

That's the third of the four value-priced options.

The most inexpensive is a $399 per ticket deal that encompasses Sections 301-308 and 325-333, the areas in the upper deck that run along each foul line. Those tickets will cost just less than $5 per game.

Next is a $599 per ticket ($7.40 per game) full-season plan in the left-field bleachers. (Sections 133-138).

The fourth includes outfield box seats in Sections 101-103 in the right-field corner and Sections 129-132 in the left-field corner. That full-season plan costs $999 per seat -- or $12.33 per game.

The value-priced packages include 13,927 seats, a little more than a third of PNC Park's capacity of 38,362, and show an average savings of slightly more than 25 percent from last season.

"We're trying to make sure that the Pirates remain the most affordable entertainment option in the Pittsburgh area and one of the most affordable entertainment options in all of professional sports," Coonelly said.

"What [the value-priced options] really do is take areas of the ballpark that are relatively inexpensive now and make them even more inexpensive and give people an opportunity to become invested in us to a greater extent than they currently are."

But will people want to become invested? What's the Pirates' pitch to fans who have watched their team stumble through 16 consecutive losing seasons -- the longest such streak in the history of pro sports?

"I would say to the fans to look at what we've done at least over the last year to try to bring the Pirates back to the success and prominence they enjoyed back in the 1970s and early 1990s," Coonelly said.

Those moves include changing the organization's management team, being more aggressive in the June amateur draft -- the signing of high-profile prospect Pedro Alvarez this year is notable -- and constructing a state-of-the-art academy in the Dominican Republic in an effort to becoming a force again in signing Latin American talent.

The Pirates also have changed their development and evaluation process throughout their minor league system.

"We're implementing these plans," Coonelly said. "It's going to be fun to watch these players perform."

Still ...

"I'll say this today -- and I said it yesterday and I'll say it tomorrow -- I understand the frustration of Pirates fans over the last 16 years," Coonelly said. "When fans are making a decision about whether they're going to continue to follow this team, [they should] ask whether they think ownership and management have a commitment to making the Pirates great again and are they taking the right steps to follow through on that commitment.

"If the answer is yes, it's going to be a pretty neat ride to follow this team."

Coonelly cited the Tampa Bay Rays, who changed ownership and management three years ago. That new group helped transform a perennial loser into a World Series participant this season.

"If you were a Rays fan over those three years and asked yourself those same questions that I think are relevant for our fans and answered yes -- that they got the plan right and implemented the plan -- then you wanted to be part of the growth."

The Pirates won't begin selling individual game tickets until Feb. 21. It won't be known until then if the Pirates will raise those ticket prices.

"We're still contemplating where we're going with individual ticket prices," Coonelly said. "There was no need to make a final decision on individual game prices at this point. We did need to make a decision on season-ticket prices."

Coonelly said season-ticket sales won't impact the pricing of individual game tickets.

"If we decide to increase to some extent the [price of] individual game tickets, obviously the season-ticket holders -- whether they buy now or they buy after Feb. 21 -- would receive an even greater discount than they currently received," Coonelly said.