Russell Athletic Bowl ticket sales sluggish at Virginia Tech, plus some other odds and ends
Virginia Tech’s bowl media day is tomorrow, so we’ll have some fresh quotes from players and coaches then. In the meantime, here are a few odds and ends.
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
** Athletic director Jim Weaver said last night on the Tech Talk Live radio show that Virginia Tech had sold a little under 3,000 tickets to the Russell Athletic Bowl of the school’s allotment of 13,500.
Those are low numbers, but with a 6-6 team, an unenthusiastic fan base and a destination where flights are not cheap, it’s not surprising. Tech is selling tickets for $72 on its website. Tickets on Stubhub.com right now are going for as low as $4.
The Hokies are responsible for selling 6,000 of their ticket allotment and partially responsible for 2,000 more. The ACC eats the cost of unsold tickets beyond that.
Ticket sales to bowl games have been a struggle for Virginia Tech the last few years. Through the school, the Hokies sold a little more than 3,300 tickets for the 2009 Orange Bowl against Cincinnati, around 6,500 for the 2011 Orange Bowl against Stanford and 9.877 of its allotment of 17,000 for last season’s Sugar Bowl against Michigan.
** Weaver also mentioned briefly that he hopes to have a new scoreboard in Lane Stadium next year, pending a deal with IMG. It sounds like the details are not finalized yet.
** When Virginia Tech confirmed a 2-for-1 scheduling agreement with Old Dominion on Tuesday, it also revealed a few other non-conference games on its future schedules page. They include:
- 2018: vs. William & Mary (Sept. 1)
- 2019: vs. Charlotte (Aug. 31)
- 2021: vs. Richmond (Sept. 4)
William & Mary and Richmond are FCS teams. The Hokies last played William & Mary in 2007 and open the 2014 season against the Tribe. Tech hasn’t played Richmond since 1986. Charlotte’s football program begins play in 2013 and has an agreement to be in the Conference USA in 2015.
Weaver said he had an agreement in place to play a home-and-home against Louisville in 2018-19 that is no longer applicable, since the Cardinals will soon be members of the ACC. He also said he’s had talks with an unnamed Big Ten team for a home-and-home in 2020-21. Those talks were put on hold because of expansion, but he intends to revisit them soon.
** Virginia Tech hasn’t had any representation on the five officially recognized All-American teams, but two Hokies got an honorable mention by Sports Illustrated.
Cornerback Antone Exum and kicker Cody Journell both got recognized by the magazine, which had a first and second team, then an honorable mention. Exum was one of 13 defensive backs in the honorable mention category. Journell was one of nine kickers.
December 12, 2012 - 9:46 AM
It is no big surprise at the struggle of selling tickets to bowl games, which is one reason why the BCS and its bowl alliance are such a grand extortion scheme that the DOJ should be looking into it. The bowls should be selling the tickets themselves, not the schools, thusly freeing up the school’s limited resources to bring the football teams and non-essential members to the game.
Not only is there going to be new scoreboard at Lane, but also in Cassell. It would be a significant upgrade, but to be honest, there is nothing wrong with the current one unless they are trying to go for more bling.
I have to feel sorry for Charlotte. That’s a school that’s going to take a looooooooooong time to get some traction in becoming a good football program. It takes a lot of resources and commitment to become a long-term program. I wish them the best.
Lane has needed a new scoreboard for a while. Well, to be more specific, a new audio system has been sorely needed for several years. The scoreboard is fine. It’s not a showpiece, but it’s fine. I’m glad to see Weaver finally allocating the money for that. Cassell’s scoreboard is like Lane’s. Very serviceable, but not a selling point. Nice to see the capital upgrades being made.
Bowl ticket sales will never return to the levels they once were, for a multitude of reasons. Not in order of priority – Hokie fans have had the opportunity to go to twenty bowls in a row and the glimmer has worn away. Factor in the economy. The financial burden, even in a good economy, is more than many families can justify. Let’s not ignore the timing of the bowls, midweek, etc.
The primary reason, though, is the television coverage. For the expense of attending last year’s Sugar Bowl – New Orleans is THE place to make a bowl destination – for that expense to a family of four, you could go to the Caribbean for a 4 day weekend PLUS buy an extremely nice 50″ HDTV, and pay for a home tailgate for you & a dozen friends. You watch on the bigscreen while Tivoing it for later, and you see all the plays without missing anything.
As for the future scheduling, Beamer & Weaver are making sure they balance out any future Top 20 teams we face with local teams, that’s for certain.
The bowl situation is simple – there are too many, tickets are overpriced, but maybe something more important, the timing of many is horrible.
Face it, they are ‘made for TV’ events, not made for the traveling spectatator anymore, when you have no more than 1-2 a day/night, all thru the weeks and only Jan 1 still the one carrying a major load.
Some people just aren’t going to haul off to a Wednesday night game, no matter who it is, and the Russell Bowl is conveniently dated, but not for fans coming off a 6-6 campaign. And everbody knows you can fit the entire RU traveling party into a single train down from Jersey.
I’ve probably got only 1 bowl game on my bucket list, and that would be if Tech were playing for the BCS Championship in Pasadena.
Andy: Does the new scoreboard include a new, larger and state of the art video screen? The current one is grossly undersized and dated compared to most stadiums these days.
VT would have been better off going to Charlotte to that bowl if ticket sales are the driving factor. I am not going to Orlando but would have gone to Charlotte. Heck, you can drive down there the day of the game and drive back all in the same day.
Until the bowls wake up and realize you cannot count on the schools selling the tickets they are allotted, primarily because they give the schools the worst tickets to sell in terms of seating, and at the highest prices in terms of cost, then this is always going to be an issue.
Another problem is 8-11……
I’ve been a season ticket holder for the past ten years. A couple of years ago I began buying all of my post season tickets (ACCCG and/or Bowl) on the secondary market. I can get the tickets for cheaper and can pick where I want to sit, ensuring a more pleasurable experience.
I have absolutely no desire to go to the bowl this year, even with $4 tickets avialable, based on the mediocrity of the team this year.
I’m happy about the score board. I’d be happy with a smaller board if they used the extra money to pay for a real offensive coaching staff. #FireStiney
The 6-6 Hokies can’t sell tickets to go to an unexciting city for a Friday game. Hello…?
What on earth did anyone expect? I hope, at least, the local alumni are going.
I lived in Charlotte in the 70 – 80s. It has changed some but is a great plave to live, not a destination resort city. After the fans tour Dilworth in seach of Paula Broadwell what else is there to do? You can’t get on Quail Hollow even if the weather is nice. Go up to Lake Norman or down to Lake Wylie? Visit the same Mall stores everyone else has? Stare at the people waiting the bus at Trade & Tryon? Go to Discovery Place? Tour the lights of McCadenville? Good luck selling that.
The new scoreboard is a great idea as long as they agree to play MORE ads and LESS replays. And please turn up the volume while you’re at it.
Zman are you lost? The game is in Orlando, not charlotte, unless you want to see duke play.
If you are a dedicated Hokie fan then you should go to this game. You might have to lay down around $3000 but it will be worth it as you can throw in a couple of days at Disneyworld and Seaworld. You can always earn more money but it is not everyday that your team can be in the Russell Athletic Bowl. I say spare no expense and be true to your school.
I find it rather odd that Jim Weaver thinks we are an “unenthusiastic fan base”. Weaver should watch some of the games and see the total lack of enthusiasm from our team and coaches then he can comment on why tickets are not selling.
I don’t think that Weaver is calling the fan base unenthusiaistic, Mr. Bitter is.
Does anyone in their right mind think the VT fan base is enthusiastic about this team? If there are, they are in a huge minority. Tech will not be able to give these tickets away.
I’ve been a season ticket holder for 22 years and have gone to probably about 15 of the last 21 bowl games and I can tell you that without a doubt the tickets sold through the ticket office suck. Even if you are a high dollar donor they suck. I can go on stub hub and for the same price or less, I can get better seats. Over the years Hokie fans have figured this out and eventually nobody will be buying them from the tech ticket office but old ladies and the unsophisticated.
The other factor that has effected the VT bowl turnout is poor performance. I no longer want to go to Miami or jacksonville or Atlanta or the like, take off work, spend 2500/3000 on hotel travel tickets meals etc and go through all the effort to see them get beaten by Kansas, blow a lead to Georgia, lose to Michigan, get blown out by Stanford, etc., etc.
No doubt we have played some fairly close games and lost (Michigan last year and Alabama in Georgia a few years back), but the bottom line is that it still sucks to lose and I’m a hell of a lot more willing to go thru all the sacrifice and money involved if I’m relishing a victory on the long way home.
Just skimed Andy’s article. I can do without games against W&M, Charlotte and Richmond. Hate playing FCS schools.
Hey, I love the Hokies as much as anyone and have been a long-time seasons ticket holder and have been to some bowl games. Unless I had planned a trip to Disneyworld I wouldn’t go either. Took the granddaughter to D-World a couple of years ago. Not going back so soon.
You guys are whining about the bowl game….How would you like to be a virginia cavalier fan…no bowl…no prospects of one in the distant future ….in other words nothing to look forward to from the football team….I’m not going to the bowl game…BUT ….I am a hokie fan and will be watching the game in the comfort of my own living room….go hokies..
Earl K. is very representative of the majority of the VT fan base. HD TV is great for these types of bowl games. I doubt the UVA fans care much about bowl games but us Georgia Tech fans do. That is why I am so excited about the Jackets playing a marquee team, the USC Trojans in the Sun Bowl. Should be a great game.
Charlotte has the John Boy and Billy Show. All right then.
Generally, the tickets a school gets are in the corners of a stadium or an equally undesirable location. And, they are not cheap. The sponsor of the bowl, and there are many, not just the name sponsor, get the good seats. This is universal. At Atlanta, all, and I mean a huge number of seats on both sides were given/sold (not sure which) to Coke dealers, bottlers, etc. No question, you can always get a better seat and at a lower price on the internet. The school ticket allotment system is a scam perpetrated by the sponsors on the schools and conferences. We invite you to play in our bowl to get TV time for recruiting, fans etc, but it’s going to cost you. And, the seats you are going to get are really going to suck.
540, concerning the future schedules, you’ve got to look at it differently. Jim Weaver is being responsive to the voices of Hokies who want to see local cupcakes if we’re going to play cupcakes. Didn’t AMc complain earlier in the week that we weren’t playing local cupcakes, instead of the Arkansas States, etc?
I actually don’t mind the local schools being on our schedule, if they’re replacing cupcakes from elsewhere. Of course, I’d love it if our OOC schedule had nobody weaker than East Carolina on it, but those days are long gone. It looks like the new approach by Beamer & Weaver is to play one top team, two weak FBS teams, and one FCS team every year. It looks like we’ll get to see the top team about once every 3rd year, alternating in a neutral game and an away game into the mix. I’m okay with that. It’s pretty much what we’ll see every September for the next several years. I still am not grounded on how Notre Dame folds into the mixture, but I don’t think Swofford or the ACC AD’s know yet, either.
As for the bowl game attendance. I’ve been to several bowls over the years all the way to the Independence back in the day. I’m done with making the bowl trips. A number of reasons, but to make it more concise, the financial angle is the primary reason. That is supported by the poor performance of the Hokies in the bowls, too. Essentially, though, the financial equation doesn’t balance any more. It is far more fun to stay home, tailgate on the deck with friends & family, and watch the (semi) big screen. Then, if the Hokies suffer a tough loss it is a whole lot shorter ride home for everyone.
I have been to several bowls and have never bought off the tech Ticket office. All together, my outlay in tickets is barely what one Ticket would run through the Ticket office. I have been to two sugar bowls and an orange bowl. I have perhaps $500 in the three combined. The major expenditure is gas. No hotels. Drive down with a buddy. Swap off driving. Sleep on the way. I have done it all three times. I love the Sugar Bowl. The Orange….not so much.
I’ll never forgive the coaching staff for blowing the Michigan game last year. It was the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen.
I’ll start going to bowls again when Tech cleans house.
Please check the Sunday specials for 70′inch TV’s @ Best Buy and HH Gregg.
Hokie Nation still spending coin just not on bowlarama this time.Different venue, similar outcome.
So now, after all these years of the Hokies winning, their fans are whining that they can’t win, and we will buy a big screen instead of bowl tickets. Hello college fans have known that for a long time. It just took the Hokie fans continually losing against the big boys to finally give in and say enough is enough. That’s okay Hokies, keep filling up Lame Stadium. The best team in the Commonwealth is ODU, and you were dumb enough to give us a 2 for 1. Soon enough you will feel like the man who invited his gardener to the party and lost his daughter to him…..
All Bowls are a joke. So why do we have them? I was at the Chick Fil A bowl when we played Ga. Riding on the elevator when a large group of people got out on the third floor. I asked what was everybody getting out on the third floor? The answer came, “Because thats where the univ. presidents guests stay.” Thats when it hit me ….thats why we don’t have a playoff. If there was a playoff then the presidents couldn’t invite God knows how many of their best buddies to a week long party put on by the bowl people to coerce the presidents to continue this nonsense. Folks we’re LOSING money on this bowl And we’re not the only ones. Stay home don’t supp0ort the bowls and we will someday have a playoff. Support the bowls and we will never be rid of them.
There are serious problems with the football program at Virginia Tech.
Those problems need addressed, and solved.
Many people have posted the problems here and other places. If nothing is done to change something, anything at all, this year things will bet worse next year.
We fans know it, and our opponents and detractors know it.
So many excuses! Wheels falling off the BANDWAGON. Fake hokie nation that’s all.
Barry from Ivy,
Seriously dude? Just when I think you couldn’t possibly type anything more stupid, you go out and completely redeem yourself. congradulations!
Now, for the rest of my rant…
As pitiful as the ACC is with BCS wins, beating top 10 opponents, not just the woeful Virginia Tech record in both aformentioned, scheduling ANY FCS opponent shows any fan with an IQ at ROOM TEMPERATURE they have no intentions of putting an elite team on the field. Beating an FCS opponent is a lose lose situation, as it doesnt improve your rankings and can only hurt your season if your unprepared team takes them likely, aka Michigan vs. Appalachian St. As long as Beamer is allowed to maintain his “system”, nothing will change to the program. It will truly take alot more fans with more skin in the game donation wise to force a change. Any IDIOT that thinks that VIRGINIA TECH’s issue is firing Bryan Sinespring is on their last brain cell, and even it is getting weak. The system isn’t Elite, and, its never going to be ELITE. Ive given up hope on Beamer’s ability to take the Hokie’s to the National Title game. Its just not in him at 66 years old to ratchet up another couple notches to challenge for elite status.
Virginia Tech is losing the 757 area code to a coach that is within one more bad season of losing his job. Whatever we don’t get the very best in Virginia go elsewhere because of the obvious reason is they want to be seen, play for a title contender, be coached by a championship style demanding elite head coach. NONE of those Head Coaches are in VIRGINIA.
Jaded? Yeah. But look at my statement and see how much is outlandish or filled with hate?
Im tired of how were told things like we were this summer, “this could be the best defensive team weve ever had here”. How did that turn out?
Hokie’s respect? Frank Beamer embraces it then allowed Cody Journell to play football again.
Going to this bowl game for some can be used as some sort of vacation going to different venues, Disney World, etc. What is being missed in that trip is the GAME you play. Going to the Sugar Bowl and the last two Orange bowl games was never about the game itself. Its never been about the game–its about doing things there and the happy bi-product is the football game. People are sick of seeing Tech lose games, look unprepared, and never seem to rise to the occasion DURING the game making in-game decisions that could affect the outcome. This is where we fail as a program and others succeed, mostly against us. They know we don’t adjust, particularly offensively and pray BUD saves the day.
Perhaps its the fact that I myself have to get over the fact that Virginia Tech is an average team, not too high, not too low. Perhaps its my unrealistic expectations that when you see a team go to the national title game, you would at least consider that its possible for them to achieve the championship themselves. Winning conference titles is great if you are in the SEC, BIG 12, or PAC 12, but experts that get paid to disect programs are horribly accurate when they tell you that the ACC’s titles by comparison aren’t the same level of achievement. The BCS wins prove it. ACC wins vs. top 10 teams prove it.
Virginia Tech has proved they aren’t a big time college football program. The stadium, the Town of Blacksburg and our university are simply this: that beautiful Corvette body with a blown engine in the garage going no where.
Andy: you still haven’t answered my question about the video screen. Is it being upgraded as well?
My point exactly Mark, you can always go to the bowl games and have fun with outside activities, especially when you know your team is going to lose. Might as well enjoy the scenery if you are going to choose to attend the game. Hokie fans know what they are getting into when they go. You know that I am sure because you must be the genius in your family.
Damn – i’m LOST ……..
I better not go to the game. I wouldn’t be able to find it.
BLUShhhhhhhhhhhh……………
Oh my gosh! I think I’ll eat some worms. You whiners are sad. It is not a level playing field and will never be a level playing field in college football. Tech fans do not give as much money, the Commonwealth of Va does not contribute money to facilities, our coaches do not hop on airplanes to go see recruits. Our coaches drive. VT does not accept partial quailfiers which many schools do.
Our administration for a long time did not want us to be a big time football school and probably still does not. We are what we are which is a wonderful ride. There will be bad times at VT like there is everywhere but the bad times will not last. We will get better with or without you bandwagon fans.
The excitement with VT football has been decreasing for a while. Last year’s debacle caused by the VT coaches in the Sugar Bowl has led up to the coup de gras administered by the coaches this year to real VT football. The state of VT football needs to be addressed by a lot more than Coach Beamer’s proclamation every week that “we must get better.” CFB needs to rethink the family atmosphere standards.
Why not schedule ACC schools that we are not playing as conference games rather than the likes of Richmond, William and Mary, Akron, Western Michigan, Austin Peay, etc. Fans want to see good competion. If the only way you can go to a bowl game is to pad your schedule with cupcakes, then you do not deserve to go bowling. Fans want to see quality teams, after all, we are the ones footing the bill.
The situation where the bowls sell tickets at full value to the schools but then dump the remaining tickets into the market at rock bottom prices is almost criminal. This does not only happen at the toilet bowls either. I am surprised that there is not a bit of push back from the schools, conferences and the NCAA.