Ecomonic times need to be considered in bowl game ticket sales

According to a Lincoln Journal Star report on Monday morning, the Nebraska athletic department had sold 8,100 Capital One Bowl tickets out of its 12,500-ticket allotment.


The secondary market is probably taking a toll on UNL sales, among other reasons (prices of airline tickets, hotels, rental cars, etc.).

Ticket sales have slowed considerably since the first-day rush. The Husker athletic department sold about 6,500 tickets on Dec. 5; the day after the bowl matchup was announced.

South Carolina has sold about 10,000 tickets from its allotment, according to a school spokesman.

In reading that brief bit of information, I could only hearken back to the only two Husker bowl games I went to in person. For the record, I am a native of Northern California (Napa, CA to be exact), who graduated the University of Nebraska in 1997 with a BA in journalism. I moved back home in 1998 and have been to five Nebraska football games in person (1998 at California, 2000 Fiesta Bowl vs. Tennessee, 2001 vs. TCU in Lincoln, 2007 Cotton Bowl vs. Auburn and 2008 vs. Western Michigan in Lincoln).



For the first three games, I was single. For the last two, I was married. I went to the Cotton Bowl because at the time I viewed it as my last chance to go to a Husker game in person before my first child was born. Juliette was born in March 2007. Little did I know that the 2007 season would bring the horrendous wreckage of the end of the Bill Callahan years. Fast forward to August 2008 with my wife and me expecting twins (now 3-year old Tommy and Danielle), I decided, “Well, I haven’t been back to Lincoln in seven years and we have the start of the Bo Pelini era. Maybe I’ll buy tickets to see us play Western Michigan. I’ll be a while before I can travel to a Husker game.”



When you factor in game tickets, plane tickets, hotels, food and other entertainment, you’re looking at a trip that gets over one thousand dollars.



You see, us Husker fans are a very self-congratulatory lot about being the classiest and travelling well. However, does going to the game and buying tickets make you any more diehard fan than one who watches the game at home or a watering hole?



Another thing you have to take into account is the present state of the economy. I know that’s an oversimplification but it’s true. We are facing unprecedented lows in the United States, at least anyone of my generation (39 years old). You have people losing their homes, losing their jobs and living on reduced wages. Even if you don’t have these issues, bills are not going away.



I remember the aforementioned Cotton Bowl trip where tickets were $90 a piece and that was on the cheap end. The question then becomes, where do you draw the line? Granted, we are all going to budget some money for entertainment whether we have jobs or families or otherwise.



So before anyone casts aspersions about ticket sales, just remember the times we face.

Would a Bowl Game in San Diego be a Holliday?

The closer the season gets, the more the predictions keep on coming.

For the Nebraska Cornhuskers, most preseason polls have them rated as high as No. 16 and as low as No. 24. Recently, Collegefootballnews.com did its early Bowl Game prognostications. The website pitted Nebraska taking on Oregon in the Holliday Bowl.

Predictions should always been taken for what they are worth, ehich at this point is not a lot. Keep in mind, most people were bullish about Nebraska having a breakthrough season in 2007 but a strange thing happened, the Huskers imploded to a 5-7 record, thus ending the Bill Callahan era.

Last season, most people tabbed the Huskers as low as 7-5 (for the pessimists) to as high as 10-2 (for the Kool-Aid sippers). Nebraska went 9-4 including a 26-21 Gator Bowl win over Clemson on new Years Day, capping a finish of winning six of their final seven games.

Most people seem to think 9-3 in the regular season is a reasonable expectation. Keep in mind, the Holliday Bowl has featured teams with nine or more victories the last three seasons. The last time the Huskers played in the Holliday was 1998 during a 9-3 regular season. The Huskers lost that game to Arizona 23-20.

We’ve heard the term “progress” mentioned so many times during the Callahan regime. The Huskers went 27-22 in that four-year span, failing to qualify for a bowl game twice.

Our friends at bigrednetwork.com posed the question of is the Holliday Bowl something to get excited about? That question to me represents a double-edge sword.

I remember in 2006, my wife and I were expecting our first of now three children. I wanted to go to Nebraska’s bowl game. Depending on the outcome of our Big 12 title game against Oklahoma and how many Big 12 teams drew BCS bowl bids, our choices ranged between the Holliday Bowl in San Diego, the Cotton Bowl in Dallas or the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. My wife inferred that San Diego would be nice. I added that as a city I’ll take San Diego but as a Bowl Game I’ll take Dallas because it’s on New Years day when the whole nation is watching.

Five turnovers later in the Big 12 Title Game, we drew Auburn in the Cotton Bowl. I flew to Dallas and with the exception of watching Callahan’s blown fake punt on his own 30-yard line that led to a 17-14 loss, I had a good time, even though I still love to choke him for calling that play.

Where the Huskers land during the bowl season not only depends on the Huskers win-loss record but how many Big 12 teams get a BCS Bowl bid.

That said, if CFNews.com is right, a Holliday Bowl berth is a tough sell in terms of “are the Huskers back?” Right now, I’d view it as a lateral step. Meaning, it’s not the enormous step forward of last year but it’s not a step in reverse either.

Then again, I have to see the season in real time to make that assessment.