Clemson as of Monday had sold 7,300 of its 12,500 tickets for its CFP semifinal game against Ohio State on New Year's Eve, "putting the school's ticket office in the rare position of having more supply than ticket demand for a post-season game," according to Abe Hardesty of the Anderson INDEPENDENT MAIL. History suggests that wherever Clemson plays, tens of thousands of fans "will follow." But economics "might have a greater impact this month." For Clemson fans, the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl in Glendale "would be the second post-season trip of the month" following the ACC Championship in Orlando, with a third one "potentially looming in early January" if Clemson were to win. Retired Anderson (S.C.) City Manager John Moore "expects Clemson fans to be outnumbered" at the game, a "rarity for the school's bowl-game followers." In addition to the 12,500 tickets sold at Ohio State, he "fears that most of the public allotment will be purchased by OSU fans" (Anderson INDEPENDENT MAIL, 12/15).
RAZOR BACKTRACK: In Arkansas, Matt Jones noted Virginia Tech has "sold nearly twice as many tickets as Arkansas" for the Dec. 29 Belk Bowl in Charlotte. As of Monday, VT had sold about 7,700 tickets, while Arkansas has sold about 4,200. VT is "expected to sell more tickets primarily because of the game's location," about 170 miles from the Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. The scenario is a "reverse from last season" when Arkansas' proximity to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl essentially gave it a "home-crowd feel in Memphis" (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, 12/13).
FARM GRAZING: Iowa Senior Associate AD/Revenue & External Operations Matt Henderson on Tuesday said that "nearly 6,800 tickets have been sold so far" out of the school’s 8,500 ticket allotment for the Jan. 2 Outback Bowl against Florida in Tampa. Henderson said those in the athletic department are “very pleased” given that tickets have only been on sale for a little more than a week. In Iowa, Jeremiah Davis wrote the school has "done a good job with its allotment, but a lot depends on where the bowl is located and the state of the team when heading to the bowl game" (Cedar Rapids GAZETTE, 12/14). Also in Iowa, Steve Batterson noted while "not as hot of a ticket as the Rose Bowl a year ago when Iowa had 54,381 requests for the 22,000 tickets it was allotted, the current total is already more than 1,500 tickets ahead" of Iowa's TaxSlayer Bowl appearance in Jacksonville two years ago (QUAD-CITY TIMES, 12/14).
BEHIND BLUE EYES: In Idaho, B.J. Rains noted Boise State was "required to purchase 8,000 tickets" to Tuesday's Motel 6 Cactus Bowl against Baylor at Chase Field. The school has "distributed more than 2,000 tickets for the game, but not all of those were purchased." That left "close to 6,000 tickets" for Boise State to sell. Boise State Associate AD/External Operations Dusty Clements on Tuesday said, "We work with the conference, but we do need to sell more tickets to hit our threshold within the Mountain West Conference so it doesn’t impact Boise State and our budget for this bowl game." Rains noted the MWC has "agreed to cover the cost for unsold tickets after a certain point, but Boise State has declined to reveal publicly how many more tickets need to be sold before they will be off the hook financially" (IDAHO PRESS-TRIBUNE, 12/14).
