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USF Bulls Buck Pricey Ticket Trend

Tribune file photo (2007)

USF students camped out to buy tickets to last year's game against West Virginia.

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By TED JACKOVICS and BRETT McMURPHY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 29, 2008

Updated: 08/30/2008 12:24 am

TAMPA - Good luck getting Gator football tickets on the 50-yard line. Ditto for Florida State.

And you can keep your $333 luxury seat for this year's University of Miami-University of Central Florida game, too.

As college football gets into the swing of the season today, the best bargain in major college football - and one of the most accessible tickets - can be found in Tampa.

The No. 19-ranked University of South Florida Bulls offer the nation's best deal among the 66 Bowl Championship Series schools - at least 1,000 seats each game priced at $10. And a seat on the 50-yard line in Raymond James Stadium's upper deck can be had for $20 or $30.

The Bulls' relatively inexpensive tickets contrast with a nationwide trend that has priced college football beyond the reach of many fans.

Tickets these days cost upward of $60 each, and most schools mandate four- and five-figure contributions to booster clubs to purchase season tickets.

The Big 12 Conference, which includes the universities of Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska, has the nation's most expensive tickets, with an average marquee single-game ticket price of $72, a survey by The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Ore., found.

Despite the Southeastern Conference's preeminence on the field, SEC ticket prices - not including the required contributions for season tickets - are relatively modest, ranging from $35 to $65 for marquee games, the Oregonian reported.

But Big East Conference schools, including USF's special offers, appear to be bargains compared with other Bowl Championship Series conference programs.

"We would like to be able to provide an affordable price point for everyone in the Tampa Bay community to be able to experience big-time football," USF executive athletics director Bill McGillis said. "Families have been priced out of so many other entertainment opportunities. We didn't want that to be the case at USF."

Heading Toward A Sellout Crowd

No doubt the short history of USF's program, which played its inaugural game Sept. 6, 1997, contributes to the availability and relatively low cost of tickets.

Tickets remained Friday for every USF game. However, 46,500 seats have been sold for the Sept. 12 (a Friday night) ESPN2 game against No. 14-ranked Kansas. USF officials are hoping for a sellout of the 65,857-seat stadium, similar to 2007's September Friday night sellout of the nationally televised game against then-No. 5 ranked West Virginia.

"The atmosphere of that game was remarkable," said USF ticket account executive Mike Stuben. The Bulls' 21-13 upset rocketed USF up the national rankings.

In 2007, the Bulls led the nation's major college programs with the team's 76 percent gain in attendance, averaging an announced attendance of 53,170 compared with 30,222 in 2006.

This will be the first season USF will open the upper deck at Raymond James for every home game. Until now, demand for tickets did not require the additional capacity.

By opening the entire stadium, more sideline seats are available. And the Bulls can offer low-cost programs, including the Chick-fil-A family plan that offers four season tickets for $350. That amounts to $87.50 per person, and the season has six games.

The $10 tickets are offered for a minimum of 1,000 seats, which could grow to as many as 2,284 seats for games when the visiting team returns its allotment of tickets.

Other individual game tickets are sold at $25, $30 and $35, which are reduced to $18, $20 and $29 for group purchases of 20 or more. That compares with $40 for University of Florida single-game tickets or $62 at Ohio State.

USF Ticket Sales Set Record

In an attempt to fill the stadium for tonight's game against Tennessee-Martin, the Bulls offered coupons in The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com all week for the purchase of a $5 ticket at the stadium or Sun Dome box office.

The highest-priced Bulls tickets are season ticket packages at $220 and $202, which require contributions to the "Bulls Club." The Bulls offer thousands of seats for season tickets that cost from $147 to $184 and do not require a contribution, assistant athletics director for communications Chris Freet said.

"We don't have people paying $10,000 to buy football tickets," Stuben said. "Those are the people who want to make a large donation to the university, and they get an opportunity to buy good football tickets, too."

USF has set a school record by selling more than 27,000 season tickets this year, assistant athletics director for ticket operations Erik Book said.

That means nearly the entire lower bowl at Raymond James Stadium will be taken up by season ticket holders, along with 12,501 seats offered free to students. That's the largest student ticket section in the Big East, one more seat than archrival West Virginia.

That's a bargain compared with many other colleges such as Florida State, where a student season ticket for seven games costs $179. At schools such as the University of Florida and Penn State, student football tickets are available only through a random lottery, which means students who want tickets might not be able to buy them.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817 or tjackovics@tampatrib.com. Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com.

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