My two cents: UA may have 50K in seats for opener
An office colleague of mine last week said she and her husband did not buy UA football season tickets for the first time in many years, but instead have purchased tickets to three games at Arizona Stadium.
Why? A lackluster home schedule, late kickoff times and as yet undetermined start times in October and November.
That’s college football in 2015, and it isn’t likely to change at most places.
But UA athletic director Greg Byrne, never one to back off a challenge, said that about 48,000 tickets had been sold through Thursday and that he “wouldn’t be surprised if there are more than 50,000” at Thursday’s opener against UTSA.
That’s impressive. Byrne and his “fan experience” staff have tried just about everything in an attempt to sell football tickets.
For the first time, he attached tickets to October 17’s Red/Blue basketball scrimmage to a football game. Fans who buy UTSA tickets at full price will have access to buy tickets to the basketball scrimmage. In most markets, that would sound absurd. But last year’s Red/Blue game sold out in 18 minutes, which might’ve been the most impressive statistic of the college basketball season.
It might be even more difficult to sell UA football tickets in 2016. Next season, Arizona opens on Sept. 3 against BYU in University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. The only known nonconference home game is against Hawaii.
If scheduling continues in that vein, maybe the UA will soon schedule two Red/Blue games.
