Nashville, Tenn. -- The first chance to see the 2008 Detroit Tigers and their imposing lineup in game action starts in the final week of February. The Tigers' Spring Training schedule includes four meetings with the AL Central champion Cleveland Indians and matchups against the New York Yankees and Mets.

The action technically begins with the Tigers' traditional exhibition opener against Florida Southern College on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. ET at Joker Marchant Stadium. From there, the Tigers formally begin their 72nd season of spring games in Lakeland.

The Tigers will have home contests for six of their first nine days of spring games, starting with back-to-back contests against the Mets on Feb. 27 and the Blue Jays the next day. The Indians, playing their final spring in Florida before heading west to Arizona in 2009, will face the Tigers four times, including games in Lakeland on March 1 and March 23.

After facing the Yankees several times in the spring over the past several years, the two teams will meet just once this coming spring with a March 15 matchup at Marchant Stadium. Other highlights will include three meetings with the NL East champion Philadelphia Phillies, with home games on March 5 and March 27.

The 72-year relationship between Lakeland and the Tigers was already the longest-running tie-in between a Major League team and a Spring Training host. That includes 43 consecutive seasons to play at Marchant Stadium.

Tickets at Marchant Stadium will again be priced at two different levels. Tickets for weekend games as well as games against the Mets, Yankees, Indians and Braves range from $10 to $21. Tickets for all other home games will run $2 less.

Season-ticket packages are now on sale at the Marchant Stadium ticket office or by mail at Detroit Tigers, Attn. Ticket Office, 2125 N. Lake Ave., Lakeland, Fla. 33805. Individual game tickets go on sale on Saturday, Jan. 12 at 10 a.m. at tigers.com, tickets.com, the Marchant Stadium box office or by calling 866-66-TIGER.

Trade gets tickets rolling: The trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis didn't just create a buzz at the Winter Meetings. According to Bob Raymond, the Tigers vice president of ticket sales and service, the team sold more than $600,000 worth of season tickets from the start of business on Wednesday, when the trade was formally announced. By comparison, they sold $250,000 worth of tickets the day after signing Ivan Rodriguez back in 2004.

Over 600 new full-season ticket packages were sold from the start of business on Wednesday into early Thursday afternoon. That's on top of a season-ticket base that was already solid for the team.

Meanwhile, the Tigers announced that tickets for next month's TigerFest sold out in just over 24 hours once they went on sale Tuesday. Though no guest list has been announced, that could be the first chance for fans in Detroit to meet new Tigers Willis and Cabrera.