UConn has earned a bid to the Fiesta Bowl, but they are still struggling to earn enough interest from their own fan base to attend the game.
Specifically, the Huskies have only sold 4,000 of their 17,500 allotted tickets for the game. While this number is obviously (slightly) greater than the 3,000 tickets UConn sold for the Papa Johns.com bowl last year, there’s the matter of bowl cost and revenue that needs to be taken into consideration.
Whatever tickets UConn doesn’t sell, they’ll have to pay for out-of-pocket. Based on the past couple of weeks, we’re guessing UConn won’t come anywhere close to the 17,500 butts they need to put in the seats. That means that the $3 million the Huskies could make in football revenue this year might not even be seen.
As of now, the university has a $2.5 million debt in unsold tickets, the very amount UConn would make this season just on the revenue sharing program the Big East has in place.
Likewise, Oklahoma’s ticket sales haven’t been through the roof, either. Of their 17,500 spots, the university has reportedly sold 8,000. However, unlike the Big East, the Big 12 will pick up the tab on any remaining tickets that aren’t sold for the game.
And it looks like there’s going to be a lot of ‘em, too.