The Virginian-Pilot
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The popularity of football at Old Dominion University has mystified many, caught some off guard and led to frustrations for others. Based on a Pricewaterhouse-Coopers survey four years ago, it was projected that ODU would do well in its startup effort with football and could expect season-ticket sales of about 6,600.
What the school ended up with, though, qualifies as one of the most successful season-ticket launches of a football team in NCAA history. The Monarchs received requests for 14,859 season tickets for a team that has yet to play a game.
Only one Football Championship Subdivision program in the country - Montana - will have a season-ticket base this season larger than ODU. The Grizzlies, who cap their season tickets at a little more than 19,000, have won two national championships in the past 15 years, have posted 23 consecutive winning seasons and have been playing football since 1897.
ODU's launch rivals that of South Florida, which 12 years ago began a program with designs on quickly moving into the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) and sold 20,619 season tickets for a first-year team.
Mark Benson believed all along that ODU's football team would play in front of sold-out crowds this fall. Benson, assistant vice president of athletic development and the former director of the school's Big Blue Club, figured it would just take a healthy walk-up crowd on game day to do it.
"I thought we'd have to rely on single-game sales to get there," Benson said. "I didn't expect we'd sell the stadium out with season tickets."
Throughout the country, successful FCS programs are viewing Old Dominion with a degree of envy. The next-largest season-ticket base among FCS teams belongs to Delaware, which sold 11,225 last season.
Appalachian State was coming off three consecutive FCS national titles last fall when it sold a school-record 7,141 season tickets. Georgia Southern, which has won six national titles, topped out at 4,700 in 2008.
Meanwhile, officials at Wyoming are crowing about season-ticket sales that have reached the high-water mark of 7,837. Wyoming is an FBS school, yet it is taking a visit by national title contender Texas this season to bump the Cowboys' season tickets to half what ODU has.
Because of the limited size of Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium - it will seat 19,782 for football - ODU officials had to turn down 1,065 requests. Many who were turned down had jumped at ODU's Family Package plan - tickets for two adults and two children for $290 ($190 less than four regular tickets).
The problem: ODU limited the number of those tickets to 1,000. Knowing the family plan was oversold well beyond its limit, ODU officials encouraged individuals to upgrade, but the pleas were not always heeded.
Benson said the school sent out letters a year ago encouraging season-ticket applicants to "join the Big Blue Club by May 1, 2009, to guarantee your season tickets and improve your seat location."
Benson said the school "called those we knew might not make the cut" to let them know that if they didn't upgrade their order, they faced the real possibility they might end up with a refund and not the tickets they hoped for.
Debbie White, senior associate athletic director at ODU, said all ticket orders tied to Big Blue Club memberships were fulfilled. That accounted for more than 8,000 seats.
Annual membership in the Big Blue Club is $100, which guarantees rights to buy two season tickets to football. A $300 donation brought the promise of buying four this year.
At the rate ODU is selling tickets, such assurances might be hard to meet in the future. It appears ODU might be entering a new age for athletics. The school never has been in a situation where selling out season tickets in any sport was part of the plan.
The region's hunger for ODU football has changed that landscape, and the impact may reach beyond football.
"We were at just over 4,700 season tickets for men's basketball last year," Benson said. "We fully expect that number to jump. Our cap for season tickets for men's basketball is somewhere around 5,400. We could reach it this winter."
While ODU was able to fill 13,794 season-ticket requests for football, there's a chance that number will shrink in 2010. To accommodate more season-ticket requests this season, ODU decided to offer each visiting team only 500 tickets. In 2011, when the Monarchs becomes a member of the Colonial Athletic Association for football, they must set aside 1,000 tickets for visiting teams.
School officials expect they can take care of those 500 tickets through attrition - season-ticket buyers in 2009 who don't buy in 2010.
As for this season, those who were in the group of 1,065 who wanted season tickets but were denied will be placed on a special e-mail list. If all of the student-section tickets are not claimed or all of the visitors tickets aren't bought, those who lost out on season tickets will have the chance to get a game ticket, beginning the Thursday before each game.
Recipients on that e-mail list will receive a special code and will get first shot at buying single-game tickets the night before the public sale.
That is, if there are any to sell.
"In the past, people have always been able to get a ticket to an ODU game if they needed or really wanted one," Benson said. "Now, it is what it is. And those days are gone."
Rich Radford, (757) 446-2463, rich.radford@pilotonline.com
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on campus
When the ODU mens basketball games moved to Scope, it made it hard to get from school to Scope to see games for students. Since the Ted Constant Center has been built, season tickets have gone up and so has attendance. It makes a big difference to have sports games at school, and not a few miles away.
ODU football is what is going to give this area a boost. Not just Norfolk, but the rest of South Hampton Roads. I hope Norfolk decides to add to the Light Rail system so that it goes to ODU. That will also be a big help.
TICKET SNAFU
If other colleges are watching Old Dominion's football season ticket campaign, I hope they look closely at the process.
I ordered my seats on the first or second day they became available. I also got the pitch to "guarantee" and improve my seats with a donation to the Big Blue Club. As another reader commented, I took it as extortion and told the athletic deptartment so.
I did get tickets, but only because I was lucky enough to order too few for the family plan. ODU knew it had limited family plan tickets, yet it took additional orders and tried to leverage those into donations for athletics.
Jim Jarrett has enjoyed a long and productive career at ODU, but ticketing for the football launch is a sad commentary on his final year.
Sold Out Submitted by Warner
Sold Out
Submitted by Warner Athey on Mon, 08/03/2009 at 11:20 pm.
No wonder they sold out. Forman Field has been sitting there about 50 years waiting for a football team.
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Don't forget the Norfolk Neptunes from '65-'69 (Continental Football League)!
Tickets!
Don't get too excited yet. Remember many years back when mens basketball was selling out the Fieldhouse and the decision was made to move the games to Scope. So many season tickets were sold that many long time subscribers could not get good seats. The school aggravated so many people that within a few years Scope was rarely half full. I hope they do a better job with their fan base this time.
The lack of attendance at
The lack of attendance at Scope had more to do with the lack of excitement on the basketball court than poor seating.
Hampton Roads sport spirit?
Didn't I read a few weeks ago that Hampton Roads was rated very low in sports spirit? Maybe ODU Fans didn't read that article.
Go Monarchs!
Clear Cut Extortion
I was one of those "family plan" requesters who received a letter stating that my chances would increase if I sent ODU at least another $100, I didn't because I saw it for what it was, extortion, and of course I received a letter stating that I was not going to get tickets. What I don't understand is how me sending in another $100 would increase the amount of seats in the stadium? I sent in my payment for tickets almost 2 years ago, and only now they are telling me that I am not getting tickets. Yes, I am disappointed, but I refuse to continue to send money into a bottomless pit when in fact I don't have any more to send. When the tickets originally went on sale, there was no mention of my chances increasing with admission to the Big Blue club, etc. Also, if there was a cap of 1000 tickets to the family section, why didn't they just take the first 1000 entires, fill those orders, and refuse the rest. They used my money for two years, and then send me a Dear John letter. Seems very disingenuous to me. Or why didn't they put all the entries into a hat and pick out the first 1000. I would have been fine with that either way. This isn't just an issue with ODU though. I don't think
Welcome to college athletics
Apparently you are not clued in on the budget realities of college athletics and the cost to operate a football program. Of course those who donate to the Big Blue Club and therefore pay for the scholarships of the student-athletes should be given a priority over those who don't. That is what all those extra $100 or $300 or $500 or $1,000 donations go for. It's the same way at Notre Dame and Penn State and Oklahoma as well as Utah, TCU and East Carolina. I can appreciate your disappointment, but ODU did not expect this level of demand and has reacted entirely appropriately, IMHO. It's just common sense, really.
SURE, BUT...
Yes, donors should get dibs on the best seats. But over-selling the capacity of the stadium is dumb, particularly in terms of public relations. Take reservations for the seats, but don't take the cash. ODU collected interest on money it took from people, knowing it likely couldn't make good on the sale. That, no matter how big or how small the institution, is wrong.
Same
Same situation with the regular (not family) season tickets. They should have stopped selling tickets once the 14,000 seats they had were filled. Let the Big Blue Club members within that 14,000 have dibs on better seats. There's no reason somebody who paid for tickets over a year ago should have been denied because somebody else joined Big Blue 3 months ago and essentially got to cut line for slipping in a $100 bribe.
Typical ODU.