BOSTON –– The baseball season might be just beginning on the field, but for those in the Red Sox ticket office the toughest part might already be over.

 All nine games at Fenway have been sellouts, extending the Major League record that began in May 2003 to 478 straight full houses. That includes the day-night doubleheader Wednesday, which might have been the biggest challenge in keeping the streak going.

 On a wet and unpleasant day, both games drew more than 37,000, keeping the streak alive. With the Yankees coming to town this weekend, the streak is certain to continue. And with better weather, and more success on the field, the odds are now strongly in favor of keeping the streak alive, even in the most demanding of economic conditions.

 ``I like our chances,’’ said Sam Kennedy, the team’s executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer. ``However, it’s fragile, too. All you have to do is look around the league. The bloom is off the rose in some places.’’

 Quite a few big league teams already are feeling the impact of the bad economy. A report earlier this week said attendance at Major League games for the first two weeks is down seven percent from last year. The two New York teams opened new stadiums amid much fanfare, but by last Sunday both had more than 5,000 empty seats for a game.

 Just about everyone expects problems. In Red Sox Nation, though, it has been business as usual, at least in the number of people in the seats. Kennedy took time on an off-day Thursday to talk about the issue.

 ``It’s been humbling. We’ve sold the same amount of tickets as last year. People are buying at the same pace,’’ he said. ``But I will tell you, we have had to work a lot harder than we did before.

 ``I say this in all humility, we pride ourselves with being in touch with our fans. (Team owners) John Henry and Tom Werner came to us and spoke about how much is going on, how we need to be sensitive to what is happening in the country. We froze our ticket prices and our concessions prices. We’ve started the Fenway Family Hour,’’ Kennedy said.

 ``We’ve hired more resources. We’ve put advertising campaigns in place on television, radio and in print. We’re doing things we haven’t done before,’’ he added.

 It is entirely possible the team could have sold all tickets for this season by now. However, it is required to keep a limited amount available for each game for players and sponsors. Also, by choice, as a way of allowing as many different fans as possible to see the team, several hundred tickets are kept for day of game sale.

 ``A game is never really sold out until the day of the game,’’ Kennedy pointed out. ``Ownership feels responsible to our fans to do that.’’

 That is why some thought the streak would end early in the season. Wednesday provided the biggest test yet –– and still the streak stayed alive.

 Interestingly, the team is becoming more active than ever in promoting itself and building, as they now call it, Red Sox Nation. The goal is not nearly as much to drive ticket sales as to build good will that the team hopes will be long term.

 ``It’s not accurate to say that we are immune (from a decline),’’ Kennedy said. ``We are a business and like all businesses we are feeling the effects in some ways. We just have to adjust our game plan and work a little bit harder to maintain the interest. The new buzz word in our industry is social networking and social media. That’s what we are working on.’’

 Just this week, the team launched a new initiative, a ``greatest moments’’ campaign. It features four ads that showcase memorable moments for the franchise. It began Wednesday with Dave Roberts throwing out the first pitch. Roberts is featured in an ad recalling his memorable steal of second base in Game Four of the 2004 ALCS.

 The goal of the campaign is to build pride and interest in the team.

 ``It is getting the fans involved and engaged, getting them to talk and argue about their favorite moments with the team,’’ Kennedy said. ``It’s meant to be fun. We want to keep the Red Sox brand on people’s minds. We want to keep people engaged with the team. . . We don’t ever want to take anything for granted.’’

 As it is, the tickets held aside for each game are about the only way remaining for fans to see the Sox. The team uses a color code to show fans what is available at the main ticket office at Gate A at the park. Green means multiple seats together are available, yellow indicated only single seats or obstructed view seats remain and red denotes that all tickets are gone.

 The only green boards remaining all season are for the Futures at Fenway game in August. About a third of the games still have single obstructed-view seats available, meaning sellouts appear all but certain the remainder of the season.

 ``If the teams falls out of contention or we get bad weather for a game, you never know, the streak could end. There is a chance,’’ Kennedy said. But it is only a very slim chance. By the end of the season the sellout streak likely will be up to 549.

 ``We look at it as a record that’s set by the fans. It’s not our record,’’ Kennedy said. ``We hope the fans keep it going. It’s been a very, very special time for us. Our job is to sustain it.’’