COLUMBUS, Ohio – When Ohio State players and coaches talk about playing inOhio Stadium, they always reference the 105,000. Some say 106,000. But theBuckeyes know how many people are watching when they take the field.That wasn't quite right last week against Buffalo. It might not be quite rightfor Saturday's 3:30 kickoff with San Diego State. It will change again nextyear. Maybe tickets could get cheaper some days. The opponents will get better.It will be easier to hit those numbers soon. And Ohio State is fine with all of it.The official current capacity of Ohio Stadium is 102,239, but the Buckeyesalways announce a higher attendance than that, including other people in thestadium not in official seats.So the announced attendance of 103,980 for the opener against Buffalo stoodout a bit. Empty seats could be seen. It wasn't quite 105,000.“Everybody is paying attention to it this year,” athletic director Gene Smithsaid. “We've always had a few thousand tickets left for games like this.”Brett Scarbrough, Ohio State's assistant athletic director for ticketing, toldcleveland.com on Friday that part of the issue is that the nonconference homeopponents this season- Buffalo, San Diego State and Florida A&M in two weeks– have returned more tickets than usual.Traveling for those fans is different than when the Buckeyes host MAC schoolsfrom Ohio. Those schools typically get between 2,500 and 4,000 tickets for thegame, and they have until two weeks before the game to return what theydidn't use. Some tickets for the San Diego State game are still available now,and some of those came from what the Aztecs returned. He also said the OSUstudents again this year did not buy the full allotment of season tickets setaside for them.In two weeks, when the FSC-level Rattlers come to town, the empty seats shouldbe more obvious.“We still have plenty of tickets available,” Scarbrough said. “It's certainly thehardest one to sell this season.”It might be the hardest sell in recent memory.Smith said the original plan was to try to get a game with Grambling, atraditional powerhouse among Historically Black Colleges and Universities andthe former home of the late legendary coach Eddie Robinson. When that didn'twork out, the Buckeyes turned to Florida A&M. Why FAMU? Because of theband. After a hazing incident that resulted in the death of a band member, theRattlers' band is just getting back to performing this year and won't bemaking the trip.That makes the game kind of beside the point, or as Smith described,“challenging” to get fans interested.“I'm really disappointed,” Smith said. “I'm disappointed, but I'm not pushingback. I understand.”A lot with schedules and home games will be changing soon.Next year Ohio Stadium will add an additional 2,522 seats in the south stands,so when Ohio Stadium is really filled, players will have to talk about playing infront of 108,000 or 109,000. A nine-game Big Ten schedule will begin in 2016,so there will be one fewer nonconference game to play. And with a four-teamplayoff starting in 2014, those games will feature better opponents.
You need to be a member of bandhead.org to add comments!
GSU IS KNOWN TO BOOST TICKETS SELLS WHILE PLAYING OCC SCHOOLS IF ITS SELLING OUT OR RECORD SELLINGS IN YEARS!! BUT SINCE GSU HAD A TWO YEAR DEAL WITH ULM SEEMS AS THEY SAID WELL NEXT FAMU THE 100 CANT GO SO OSU MAD! WTF HBCU BANDS ARE BEING USED AS CIRCUS ATTRACTIONS COME SEE THE WORLD FAMED OR THE 100 OR JUKE BOX ITS SAD. in 2001 Portland St got that bluff called because GSU beat them.10 second before game over!
Replies