TCU-Tech football game is a hot ticket
#1
Posted 15 September 2006 - 12:03 AM
By ALEX BRANCH
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH — Looking for a last-minute ticket to the Texas Christian University-Texas Tech University football game?
Get ready to empty your wallet.
Two low seats on the north goal line were going for $262 this week on eBay. On Stubhub.com, four seats in the upper level would cost you $353 — each.
“No one remembers people ever paying that much before,” said Mark Cohen, a TCU athletic department spokesman. “We were talking about it at our staff meeting. The demand is really, really strong.”
The clash between old Southwest Conference rivals is the first sellout at Amon Carter Stadium since 1984, when the Horned Frogs hosted the No. 10 Texas Longhorns. And competition for the stadium’s 44,008 seats has been fierce.
Saturday’s game has been sold out for three weeks, university officials said.
“We’re still getting calls, every day, all day,” said Sean Conner, director of ticket operations. “It’s a hot ticket.”
The game is the first time since the ’84 game that a ranked TCU team played a ranked team at home during the regular season. TCU was 12th in 1984.
This year, TCU is 20th and Texas Tech is 24th in the Associated Press poll.
It all added up to a nice payday for fans who can’t or won’t use their tickets.
Joey Jayachandran, a 2003 TCU graduate who lives in Indianapolis, planned to return to Fort Worth for the game. But a scheduling conflict caused him to sell his tickets on eBay, he said.
Jayachandran, an engineer, sold them Thursday for $340 to a TCU fan, he said.
“Selling these tickets more than paid for my season tickets,” Jayachandran said.
The high prices could lead to scalping, which campus police said is not allowed on school property. And selling tickets on the street for more than face value is a Class C misdemeanor, said Lt. Paul Jwanowski of the Fort Worth Police Department.
“If we see someone doing it, we’ll probably tell them to leave,” he said. “If they keep doing it, they could be ticketed.”
How much of the stadium will be purple and how much will be red is anyone’s guess. There are rumors that some Texas Tech fans bought entire TCU season ticket packages ($250 for four seats in the end zone; $180 for one seat elsewhere) just to attend this game. That would help explain the record 13,941 season-ticket packages TCU sold this year.
“I’ve heard stories of people doing that,” said Chris Cook, a Texas Tech athletic department spokesman, with a chuckle. “I don’t know of anyone personally who has done it. But I know Nebraska fans have done that to us. So it wouldn’t be too surprising.”
Conner said TCU has no way of knowing whose fans bought tickets.
“We don’t ask them who they’re rooting for,” Conner said.
Cohen predicted that Saturday’s attendance will approach a record — also set during that ’84 Texas game — of 47,280, but probably won’t break it. Reconfigurations to the stadium have gradually cut capacity by about 3,000 seats.
“But we’ll have a lot of people there,” he said. “And a lot will be wearing purple.”
Staff writer Dan X. McGraw contributed to this report.
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IN THE KNOW Texas Tech at TCU
Time: 4:30 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: Sold out
TV: OLN, CSTV
Radio: ESPN/103.3 FM, KTCU/88.7 FM, KHYI/95.3 FM
#2
Posted 15 September 2006 - 12:09 AM
#3
Posted 15 September 2006 - 09:12 AM
#4
Posted 15 September 2006 - 02:07 PM
Go Big Red!
Wreck'em Texas Tech!
Go Fight Win!!
Guns Up!!!
#5
Posted 15 September 2006 - 06:47 PM
Go Frogs!
#6
Posted 16 September 2006 - 12:07 AM
#7
Posted 16 September 2006 - 08:36 PM
The departing folks wearing red were less festive than on the way in, but that's understandable. Regardless, they were fun to have as guests for a day.
#8
Posted 17 September 2006 - 12:10 PM
The neighborhood was certainly alive today with busses and fans on foot. Not to mention Red Raiders enjoying our road humps in fast-moving pickups... Yee-Haw!
The departing folks wearing red were less festive than on the way in, but that's understandable. Regardless, they were fun to have as guests for a day.
I also enjoyed seeing our guests in DT Fort Worth. I saw a great deal of red. Sundance also had some what of a car show on main street I didn't know about. I can tell the Red Raiders had a great time in Sundance. Red is my favorite color. But I support my FROGS!!!
#9
Posted 17 September 2006 - 12:42 PM
#10
Posted 18 September 2006 - 11:15 AM
#11
Posted 18 September 2006 - 11:58 AM
#12
Posted 18 September 2006 - 03:39 PM
#13
Posted 18 September 2006 - 06:49 PM
Utah and Southern Miss are good competition but they aren't regionally known programs. A&M right now wouldn't be good competition but people would show up in droves to see it. We didn't pick our non-BCS status and playing in conferences that included Southern Miss and Utah, that would be your so called "good competition" that did that.
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