Penn State has sold more than 23,000 tickets for the Jan. 2 Rose Bowl against USC, the "most tickets that Penn State fans have purchased for a bowl game since the Nittany Lions' last Rose Bowl appearance" in '09, according to Aaron Carr of the Harrisburg PATRIOT-NEWS. The school's original allotment for the game was 22,000 tickets, but that "wasn't enough as fans continued clamoring for those precious stubs." Penn State Assistant AD/Strategic Communications Jeff Nelson wrote in an email that the school's ticketing staff saw the "'tremendous demand' from Nittany Lion Club members and contacted the Big Ten with hopes of obtaining additional tickets." The conference was "able to secure another 1,000-plus tickets for Penn State." Carr notes Penn State students "bought approximately 1,700 tickets for this year's game." That number is in the "same range as the sale" for the '09 Rose Bowl. Carr notes the "common denominator" between the '09 and '17 Rose Bowls "would be Penn State's opponent," USC. There were "two prices for Penn State's allotted tickets, $150 and $210, and all ticket prices are "set by Rose Bowl officials." Penn State fans "headed to Pasadena have also purchased more than 2,000 packages" from Atlanta-based PrimeSport (PENNLIVE.com, 12/27).
TRAVEL WELL: In Topeka, Ken Corbitt reported Kansas State "fell about 3,000 short of selling its allotment of 10,000 tickets" for tonight's Advocare V100 Texas Bowl against Texas A&M at NRG Stadium. KSU AD John Currie said, "I don’t have the official numbers but we’re somewhere in the 7,000 range. ... As always we’ll end up with 15,000 to 20,000 fans in there. They get their tickets somewhere.” Corbitt noted a "large crowd is expected" for the game. Currie said, "I understand from bowl officials that they’re expecting more than 65,000 people for the game, which would be one of the highest attended bowl games in the country this year” (CJONLINE.com, 12/27).
