Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News reported today that 9,101 season tickets have been sold for the Roadrunners’ inaugural season.
But how does 9,101 compare with other D1 programs?
The Baylor Bears announced today that their 15,000th season ticket had been sold, which is apparently their highest number in recent history. Last year Baylor averaged just over 40,000 in attendance at each home game.
Out of the six future WAC members that played football last year, only two schools reported their season ticket totals for 2010. Utah State sold 4,885 and New Mexico State sold just 3,399. Those numbers led to average attendances of 17,878 and 15,906 respectively. Perhaps the only FBS team that considered a move to the WAC, North Texas sold a mere 2,000 season tickets in 2010.
For the best comparison, let’s look at the Houston Cougars and UTEP Miners. Houston sold 10,700 season tickets in 2010, while the Miners sold 12,170. Both schools had around 30,000 in attendance at each home game, which is certainly a number that UTSA would love to see at the end of the year.
It’s a bit of a surprise that UTSA, with a schedule full of FCS, DII/III and NAIA teams, is closing in on the numbers put up by the University of Houston last year when their only non-FBS opponent was their opening game against the Texas State Bobcats. Perhaps the largest factor contributing to UTSA’s success is the lack of competition, being the only big-time football team in town, while UH has to compete for fans with Rice and the Texans, not to mention the Astros, Rockets and Dynamo.
The bad news is that with under 10,000 season tickets sold, it seems unlikely that UTSA will reach its goal of selling out its opening game, which is just under a month away. However, if the students come out and fill all 15,249 seats in the student section, then that puts the attendance just south of 25,000, and it seems plausible that in a city of 1.33 million, UTSA could attract 40,000 more football fans to come out to the team’s first ever game.
For those wondering what the season ticket package looks like, take a look at this pdf. Included is a booklet with a letter from Lynn Hickey, along with the tickets to all six games and a commemorative inaugural season ticket (pictured above).
For more, see the new Coker Chronicles blog, where they compare our numbers to those of 2009/2010 start-ups South Alabama and Georgia State, as well as provide some rough financial estimates.
Join the discussion: http://rowdyville.net/forum/index.php?topic=528
In other news: McCarney also posted some interesting notes from an interview with QB Eric Soza, including an analysis of the incoming freshman class.
thanks for the link darrell! judging from ticketmaster [http://bit.ly/pZrpxe] we’ve got a long ways to go before a sell out is feasible but we’re making great progress (i willingly admit to checking this diagram all day at work)
last time i checked ticketmaster they didn’t have the interactive seating chart up, so thanks for that link, one more bookmark to check every couple hours =P
yeah, it looks like a sell out is pretty unlikely, but selling out the lower bowl looks plausible as long as people are willing to sit in those corner sections
I’m sure a good number of people are waiting until closer to the game. I know a few people in my family that are waiting to see if they are available that weekend.
for sure. i would imagine a lot of the casual fans will be buying them in the week or two leading up to the game or at the gate.
i’ll take this opportunity to rant about the $6 in fees that ticketmaster charges for a $12 ticket in the upper level. some fans will probably be waiting to buy them at the gate to avoid a ridiculous 50% fee.