Report: Home Opener Against Purdue Boilermakers Rapidly Approaching Sellout
By Chris Bains
(Courtesy Rivals)
Earlier this month Cincinnati AD Whit Babcock hinted that the Bearcats’ home opener against Purdue was going to be sold out. It seems his predictions are holding water.
The Cincinnati Business Courier is reporting that there are just about 1,000 tickets available to the game. That of course excludes the 6,000 or so tickets available to the students but based on the trend over the last few years, those should fly out of the ticket office like hotcakes. So for all intents and purposes there are roughly 34,000 tickets sold thus far. Like I mentioned in the first linked piece, the key is higher demand for UC football and Associate AD Brad Wurthman proved those claims with the following statement:
"“We’re seeing tickets fly earlier than we have before,” Wurthman said. “Things are moving at a faster clip than in the past.”Likewise, season-ticket sales are also on the rise. Wurthman didn’t give specifics, but season tickets make up well more than half of all ticket sales"
The mark of higher demand in athletics is higher season ticket sales and by my math, if Wurthman’s words are true, Cincinnati has sold at least 14,000 season tickets for the 2013 season. That’s up roughly 2,000 from last year and definitely speaks to the impact Tommy Tuberville has made on this fanbase. They are excited for the future of UC football under an established coach with such a lofty pedigree.
It is essential for Tuberville to keep them excited. Knocking the tar out of Purdue in week one would go a long way to accomplishing that and rolling through the non-conference schedule unscathed would go even farther. Overall the schedule plays out nicely for a strong inaugural season for Cincinnati’s newest head coach. So as long as Tuberville keeps a good thing going, we should see capacity crowds (like the one being anticipated against Purdue) more than a few times at Nippert Stadium this year.