Bank of America Stadium hosts the Georgia Tech-Florida State ACC Championship Game Saturday, and conference Commissioner John Swofford said playing in Charlotte "gets easier from a logistical standpoint" every year, according to David Scott of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Swofford said, "Hopefully we’re building something as a conference with the city and surrounding area that people look forward to every year." Meanwhile, asked why Charlotte is not more "in the mix" for the ACC baseball and basketball tournaments, Swofford said, "Our schools wanted to rotate the basketball tournament because it’s not just two schools coming to play, like football, but all 15 of us. ... New York (where the tournament will be played in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn from 2017 and ’18) is an important market to us." He added, "Charlotte has a magnificent baseball facility, but there was at least one conflict for them over the four-year period” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/5). Swofford said of playing the football title game in Charlotte, "We have a lot of alums in and around Charlotte and even with our expansions over the past decade or so, Charlotte continues to be right in the middle of our footprint geographically. ... It's just an excellent place for us" (CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/5 issue).
FULL YELLOW JACKET: In Charlotte, Erik Spanberg reported GT fans "might boost ticket sales" for Saturday's ACC Championship, but it "still lags rival conferences when it comes to resale values." TiqIQ data shows the "average price hovering near $93, almost dead even with prices" for last year's FSU-Duke game. Box-office prices "range from $25 to $195 at Bank of America Stadium." Fans of FSU, playing in the championship in Charlotte for the "fourth time in five years, may have burnout." FSU would go to the CFP with a win Saturday, a "possibility likely to cause some Seminoles fans to budget for two possible road trips." Sales for the game "are in the 60,000 range." Each school "receives 5,500 tickets, and Georgia Tech hit that mark early this week." Much of the "potential for walk-up sales and for the estimated 60,000 who already have tickets to show up depends on the weather." Charlotte Sports Foundation Exec Dir Will Webb said of ticket sales, "We think it's going very well." This year, the ACC, local organizers and the stadium "signed a six-year extension, keeping the game" in Charlotte through '19. TiqIQ notes that while the "average resale price for Georgia Tech-FSU is about the same" as the '13 game, it is up 60% from '12, when the "same schools played in Charlotte" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 12/4).
