Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium has been host to 93 consecutive sellout crowds, but that streak could be coming to an end this weekend when the Hokies host Western Carolina.
“I think the sellout streak will end against Western Carolina,” Virginia Tech Athletic Director Jim Weaver said Monday on Tech Talk Live, according to The Washington Post. A program failing to live up to the national prominence it recently experienced paired with a home opener against one of the bottom feeders even from the FCS ranks surely combines for a tough sell by Virginia Tech standards.
The last time Lane Stadium was not sold out for a game was November 21, 1998, when Virginia Tech hosted Rutgers in a Big East match-up. Since then the Hokies have gone 139-47, counting last week’s loss in Atlanta to top-ranked Alabama.
Just to give you an idea of how long ago this was, the last time Virginia Tech failed to sell out a home game Bill Clinton was in The White House, a postage stamp cost $.32. The Sony PlayStation 2 was two years away from being released. Many Americans were accessing the internet using America Online 4.0. The debut album for Britney Spears was still two months away from being released. This particular writer was two years away from graduating from high school, spending free time trying to defeat Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or thinking how great the brand new Bowl Championship Series was going to be.