July 11 Notebook
July 11, 2005 04:03 PM | General
July 11, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia football fans apparently believe being the hunter is much more appealing than being the hunted. Season tickets sales for the 2005 football season are “about 2,500 ahead of last year’s pace,” according to WVU Assistant Marketing Director Matt Wells.
Last year, West Virginia sold nearly 30,000 season tickets after several preseason publications picked the Mountaineers to win the Big East and secure the league’s BCS bowl berth. This year West Virginia, set to break in a new starting quarterback, is picked to finish anywhere from third to fifth in the new Big East Conference that features newcomers Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida and minus Boston College and Temple.
Wells says sales have been constant since tickets became available to the general public last spring.
“Once we get after the 4th (ticket sales) begin to pick back up again,” he said. “The down time is usually in mid June.”
Wells and WVU Sports Marketing Director Brad Howe believe there are several reasons why season tickets are going at such a brisk pace. They list an attractive home schedule featuring Virginia Tech, Louisville and Pitt, the fact that West Virginia is coming off back-to-back Big East titles and a general positive feeling about the athletic department after men’s basketball’s run in the NCAA tournament as probable factors.
Howe also mentioned the growing popularity of the Fan Festival at home football games, the ease of ordering tickets on the Internet keeping the ticket office open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a population increase in North Central West Virginia, and being a year removed from the negative publicity generated from the ACC’s raid of Big East schools Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College as other possible factors.
Howe says he is “pleasantly surprised” with the number of tickets sold so far and hopes the trend continues.
“I think we’ve broadened our exposure, particularly for single-game sales, with the United Bank Two-For-One offer and the Adelphia Internet discount for the Pitt game,” said Howe. “All of these things factor in.”
“I think fans are excited about football season and I think as we move closer to the season the excitement is going to continue to grow,” said Wells.
The ticket office announced earlier today that it has suspended orders for mini-season tickets and single-game tickets for the Virginia Tech game. The only way to purchase a Virginia Tech ticket now is by buying a regular season ticket.
Season tickets for the 2005 season can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging onto WVUGAME.com.
Briefly:
Congratulations to both!
 Beilein |
 Nichols |
Last week it was announced that Mike Gansey is one of 13 college players vying for roster spots on the USA Basketball team for the World University Games in Turkey.
On Aug. 1 in New York, jury selection is scheduled to begin in a four-year-old case involving the National Invitation Tournament, which is claiming the NCAA basketball tournament violates antitrust laws. The NIT would like to have more access to the selection process. At stake is about $475 million in tournament revenue – which represents more than 90 percent of the NCAA’s total revenue of about $520 million per year.
“It’s another case that is significant,” NCAA general counsel Elsa Cole told the Indianapolis Star. “We think the association has the right to ask members to commit to certain rules for the benefit of the membership. We want to preserve the ability to have the championship be a meaningful experience for student-athletes.”
The NCAA was already on the losing end of a lawsuit filed by former Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel, who managed to get $2.5 million from the NCAA out of an overall $4.5 million settlement for his firing after it was disclosed that he took part in an NCAA tournament basketball pool.
The trial revealed that at least one unnamed NCAA official was “overzealous” in pursuing Neuheisel.
If memory serves me correct, the last time West Virginia played a regular season game on CBS was in 1987, when the Mountaineers won at Notre Dame 57-55. Can you name the two CBS announcers who did the game? The answer is at the bottom.
Outside of league play, WVU takes on UCLA, Oklahoma and LSU and possibly either Kentucky, Iowa or Texas depending upon who advances in the Guardians Classic. About the only good team West Virginia is not playing this year is the San Antonio Spurs.
The women’s soccer guide and poster were voted “Best in the District,” while the football guide, women’s basketball guide, baseball guide and women’s basketball poster were each judged second in the district.
According to Swan, the 2005 football media guide is expected to arrive in Morgantown the last week of July.
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| Rodriguez |
Ahead of Rodriguez on Feldman’s list were Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier and Texas’ Mack Brown.
Answer: James Brown and Bill Raftery.
Have a great week!
