The Ohio State football team enters the season as reigning national champions and is favored to win it all again, and yet there are "still plenty of tickets available to the general public for three nonconference home games -- against Hawaii, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan -- and scattered seats available for other games," according to Bob Hunter of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. OSU VP & AD Gene Smith has said this season is “the perfect marketing situation.” Hunter: "So how does a terrific product, aggressive marketing and the perfect marketing situation add up to unsold tickets?" The quality of opponents "is an obvious factor." The price of those tickets "is another -- even the reduced cost of $65 (for Hawaii and Western Michigan) from the regular price of $79 isn’t enough to get some fans to move away from their high-definition TVs." If Ohio State "can’t easily sell out every home game this season, when fan interest has never been higher, it might never sell out a season again." Big Ten teams will "begin playing nine conference opponents next season, will no longer be permitted to schedule games against Football Championship Subdivision schools and must play at least one nonconference game against an opponent from another Power Five conference. Those schedule adjustments "should help." OSU also is "studying alcohol sales at games, where and how much Wi-Fi to make available and anything else to make the stadium experience more attractive" (DISPATCH.com, 8/16). OSU Assistant AD/Ticketing & Premium Seating Brett Scarbrough said, “There is the perception that we’re sold out, and it’s a long-held perception. ... We spend a lot of time just trying to get the word out that you can get a ticket and you can get one through the primary market at face value" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 8/15).
