College football is almost recession-proof, at least when you win.
That seems to be the logical conclusion for three of the state’s biggest football programs.
Season ticket sales for upcoming season at Virginia Tech sold out for the 12th year in a row. Single tickets aren’t available for Hokie home games except for the opening game against Boise State at FedEx Field, and those are being sold by the Washington Redskins. Virginia Tech, which is ranked No. 10 in the AP preseason poll, sold its allotment of those tickets in May. (You can read more about that in a Roanoke Times story here.)
Single-game tickets aren’t available for home games at the University of Richmond, which will start the season in a new on-campus stadium.
The 4,000 season tickets also sold out, a first for the school.
“Obviously the biggest improvement is the fact that we are playing on campus. … There is a brand new environment with concessions and restrooms and all the amenities of a pro stadium but with 8,000 seats,” said Mike DeGeorge, a director of public relations for the athletics department.
That’s a big increase from two years ago, when about 2,200 fans bought season tickets. That figure rose to 3,128 in 2009, in part because the school was marketing the new stadium to fans.
“We were trying to encourage fans to get in on the 2010 season by giving the folks that bought for 2009 at the old place first dibs at the new place,” DeGeorge said.
Meanwhile, at UVA, which has struggled to field a winning team for the past several years, ticket sales are sluggish. Even with new head coach Mike London, the Wahoos are struggling to fill the seats. The stadium has sold 27,372 season ticket packages. In 2009, that figure was 30,507, according to a story in the Daily Progress.
RBS was unable to reach an official with UVA. Average attendance at Virginia games has fallen from about 61,000 in 2005 to less than 48,000.
And the loss of ticket revenue isn’t the only financial hit. The school also had to pay fired coach Al Groh $4.33 million to cover the last two years on his contract.
Aaron Kremer is the BizSense editor. Please send news tips to [email protected].
College football is almost recession-proof, at least when you win.
That seems to be the logical conclusion for three of the state’s biggest football programs.
Season ticket sales for upcoming season at Virginia Tech sold out for the 12th year in a row. Single tickets aren’t available for Hokie home games except for the opening game against Boise State at FedEx Field, and those are being sold by the Washington Redskins. Virginia Tech, which is ranked No. 10 in the AP preseason poll, sold its allotment of those tickets in May. (You can read more about that in a Roanoke Times story here.)
Single-game tickets aren’t available for home games at the University of Richmond, which will start the season in a new on-campus stadium.
The 4,000 season tickets also sold out, a first for the school.
“Obviously the biggest improvement is the fact that we are playing on campus. … There is a brand new environment with concessions and restrooms and all the amenities of a pro stadium but with 8,000 seats,” said Mike DeGeorge, a director of public relations for the athletics department.
That’s a big increase from two years ago, when about 2,200 fans bought season tickets. That figure rose to 3,128 in 2009, in part because the school was marketing the new stadium to fans.
“We were trying to encourage fans to get in on the 2010 season by giving the folks that bought for 2009 at the old place first dibs at the new place,” DeGeorge said.
Meanwhile, at UVA, which has struggled to field a winning team for the past several years, ticket sales are sluggish. Even with new head coach Mike London, the Wahoos are struggling to fill the seats. The stadium has sold 27,372 season ticket packages. In 2009, that figure was 30,507, according to a story in the Daily Progress.
RBS was unable to reach an official with UVA. Average attendance at Virginia games has fallen from about 61,000 in 2005 to less than 48,000.
And the loss of ticket revenue isn’t the only financial hit. The school also had to pay fired coach Al Groh $4.33 million to cover the last two years on his contract.
Aaron Kremer is the BizSense editor. Please send news tips to [email protected].
I’m honestly surprised the attendance at UVa games is even that high. To watch them on TV you would think only the players’ families were showing up to games in Charlottesville.
This article omitted the third biggest football program in the Commonwealth – JMU – although inclusion of JMU’s ticket sales would provide further support for the recession proof nature of the top programs. JMU has sold out its season tickets for at least the past 4 years, is in the midst of a two year stadium expansion that will increase capacity by 10,000, and might ultimatey increase the stadium’s capacity to 40K if demand continues to surge.