December 17, 2005
Cards tickets tough sell; Va Tech fans can't get enough
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
Louisville football fans bought an estimated 18,000+ tickets to last year's Liberty Bowl against Boise State. So what's the Cards fans response to the school's first January bowl game since the early 90's against #12 Virginia Tech?
But as of this week, Louisville fans still hadn't purchased the school's allotment of 12,750 tickets for the Jan.2 Gator Bowl against Virginia Tech at Alltel Stadium. The Cardinals (9-2) are playing in the Gator Bowl for the first time and in a January game for the first time since the 1991 Fiesta.
For it's part, the Virginia Tech football fans can't get enough of Jacksonville. The Hokies have sold their entire ticket allotment and requested an additional 3,000 tickets for students.
So, what's the big deal, right? Well, short term - the Gator Bowl is going to be a pro-Tech crowd, obviously. Long term, teams need to show that they travel well in order to get invitations to the top tier bowl games. In a smaller TV market like Louisville, the last thing you need is the reputation that your fans won't show up to support the team. Once that reputation settles in, your team can get passed in the bowl selections for a slightly less capable team that will fill their seats.
Comments:
Tim Barber said:
posted on December 17, 2005 2:35 PM — 209.42.200.59 — link — abuse?
The VT response is not deceptive. Although we had to commit to bowl tickets by the 18th, no one had to select Gator Bowl tickets. You just selected how many tickets to each bowl you wanted. We all knew we could lose and we all knew we could end back up in Jacksonville. If you decided that you didn't want to go to Jacksonville twice you had the option not to select the Gator Bowl tickets. So why select Gator Bowl tickets and then complain about it when you got them? I ordered them and I am looking forward to the Hokies playing!
posted on December 19, 2005 12:34 AM — 69.255.36.102 — link — abuse?Josh Crockett said:
Tim, did you bother to read my comment? When people committed to those Gator Bowl tickets on 18 November, their expectation was that it would be our only trip to Jacksonville, in reward for a 10-1 season and a BCS at-large shafting. No one expected (a) Miami to crap out against GT, or (b) us to blow the ACCCG if we did sneak into it.
And you must not be bothering to read the ticket boards or eBay, either. VT-sourced Gator Bowl tickets are easy to find and dirt cheap.
Will we take 12K to Jax? Probably (and whatever number we do take, I'll be part of it). Will we outnumber Louisville fans? Almost certainly. Will it be a better turnout than Miami could have provided? Definitely, which is why we're there; tough luck for us that the bowl with the more attractive destination (Atlanta) and opponent (LSU) had the third pick rather than second. But will this year be up to VT's usual bowl travel standards? No way.
cygnus34 said:
posted on December 20, 2005 11:53 AM — 68.52.14.25 — link — abuse?
The ticket sales for louisville are very misleading. When people called the CARD ticket office and wanted to know the location of the seats, the staff could not tell them what sections the seats where in, so many people bought directly from the GATOR BOWL and other sources. The school allotment will be sold and there will be over 20,000 and maybe a lot more CARD fans at the game.
EER10 said:
posted on January 5, 2006 1:43 PM — 129.71.238.253 — link — abuse?
You guys must be proud. Lets see what you do Weaver ? take his crack away for a day. You make me sick Vick !! JC, you can come back on me all you want and nothing will phase me. Why are you not writing about your beloved VT's behavior at the Gator ? If it were any other team in the NCAA it would be your main topic for a month. Frank Beamer should be ashamed of himself. He has totally lost control of his players, not just Vick either. I am so sorry, you cannot control your players when you cannot control yourself though. Steve Usecheck, Gator Bowl official stated that " Tech's first half taunting and late hits the worst he had seen in 22 years." This comment did not include the Williams and Vick GANGSTA THUG problems. He said the Virginia Tech players " were completely out of control." Why have you not posted anything on this ? I will say it again, if it were any other team you would eat it up for weeks. Keeping it hush hush because it your team, thats nice. You know what thats called , I am sure of it. Thats some sad S&@! man. I would bet this will not even get posted.
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Josh Crockett said:
posted on December 17, 2005 11:28 AM — 69.255.36.102 — link — abuse?The VT response is pretty deceptive. We had to commit to bowl ticket orders by 18 November, the day before Miami lost to GT and put Tech back in the ACC Championship Game; at the time, we weren't thinking this would be our second trip to Jacksonville in less than a month. Tickets in hand or not, the return trip is a tougher sell, especially with how we lost in the ACCCG.
End result: those Hokie-side tickets are all presold, but a lot are now up on eBay for cheap. We may still outnumber Cardinal fans in Jax, but by our standards it's going to be a disappointing turnout.