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FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

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FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

December 17, 2010
Mean Green Blog | DentonRC.com is the official website for The Denton Record-Chronicle newspaper, Denton's trusted source for area news, sports, weather and more.

Another reason buying tickets matters (embarrassing bowl sales at FIU)
10:19 AM Fri, Dec 17, 2010
Brett Vito

Adam Beasley had a pretty interesting story in the Miami Herald today, one that makes a point about how important it is for Sun Belt teams to have, you know, fans.

We have made a few cracks over the years about Florida International (the lower case U of Miami) having approximately 13 fans.

You thought we were kidding, didn't you?

Adam's story shows that we are not that far off.

The Golden Panthers have sold what Adam termed "a few hundred tickets" to the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. Speaking from experience that probably means FIU isn't going to cough up the actual number, which isn't much.

There was some moaning in Miami that FIU was sent to Detroit, while Troy landed in New Orleans and Middle Tennessee in Mobile for bowl games. Victors don't always get the spoils, especially when there is a good chance there will be an embarrassing crowd in the stands.

If you have ever been to a game at FIU, which I know most of you haven't because I would have immediately recognized a lot of you in the throng of a couple thousand, know what I am talking about.

So how does this affect UNT?

Well, the Sun Belt is giving FIU $300,000 out of the league's BCS bowl money so the school won't lose money on winning (getting to a bowl). Troy got $250,000 and MTSU $200,000.

Adam's story said it all came out of the league's share of the $25 million of the BCS money that went to non-automatic qualifying leagues. The Sun Belt spent three quarters of a million bucks of its slice of the pie on helping finance bowl trips.

Another interesting tidbit from Adam's story is that Troy has sold more than 3,000 tickets for the New Orleans Bowl and expects several hundred more fans to buy tickets in New Orleans.

Adam's story also says that Middle Tennessee has already moved 1,300 tickets for the GoDaddy.com Bowl. The game is still more than three weeks away.

The whole reason FIU got shipped to Detroit is everyone knew that it would sell bubkus in the way of tickets.
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Re: FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

what did we sell, about 2k when we went?
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Re: FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

Yeah about 2K if I recall.

It didnt help that their Admistration bitched and moaned about the game either. Anyone who was on the fence probably changed their mind after hearing about how thier team got screwed.

FWIW I wont blame ANYONE who didnt go to Detroit from FAU nor will I bitch out any FIU fan that doesnt go. Leaving a Balmy South Florida for a Day after Christmas game in snowy Detroit is nuts.

I do hope that many of them buy a ticket and donate it like most of us did.

I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick @$$ and I'm out of bubble gum.

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Re: FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

They didn't show up in large numbers at their own stadium so not surprising they don't want to go to Detroit.  If the game was in New Orleans there would be a different set of excuses.  Just the way it is.  Our fans are not much better in that regard.  There will always be an excuse of some kind.

The Gators basketball team just sold 12,000 tix to the game down here for next weekend at BankAtlantic Center.  That's the difference an extra 75-100 years makes…
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Re: FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

Maybe the FIU admins can do what FAU did for the game in Detroit. They knew they weren't going to sell a lot of tickets so they gave away a signed ticket stub if you bought a ticket and donated it.

Now I know no one cares about Crystal Balls autograoph but why not ask Isiah to sign a basketball stub or some photos or something.

I bet a lot of people would be willing to do that if they knew hey I can't make it but my ticket will go to good use and I get an Isiah autograph

My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
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Re: FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

Jab979 said

I bet a lot of people would be willing to do that if they knew hey I can't make it but my ticket will go to good use and I get an Isiah autograph

Good idea.  And they should have marketed that to people in Detroit.  They actually like Isiah in Detroit from his Pistons days.

Market to whomever will buy a ticket.  When we played MSU this year, FAU called me to volunteer, and I made phone calls to businesses in Detroit and made them aware that they could see MSU and told them how to buy tickets for their business.

You sell your allotment to whomever will buy them.  Good to not waste a lot of time marketing here to get a couple of fans. 
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Re: FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

Troy will sell 4,000 or so (just over 3,000 is a New Orleans Bowl team record), but 15,000 Troy fans will show up. Problem is, the truck bowl has in the past sold GA tickets for $20 each (half-off the school price). The crummy seat buyers just fill in with the expensive seat buyers and it looks good, but Troy gets no credit or money for those cheaply sold tickets.
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Re: FIU Bowl Ticket Sales

Check out this thread and you might be surprised at how few tickets major programs sell to some major bowls, such as UGA (3,500 to Liberty), UConn (2,000 to Fiesta) and or VaTech (6,000 to Orange) …

http://gotroytrojans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23219
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