Monday, February 16, 2009

The unwashed masses may actually be able to buy ACC Tourney tickets

Wow.

For the first time since LBJ was in office, a public sale of ACC men's basketball tickets may actually happen, writes Ken Tysiac.

Karl Hicks, who directs the ACC's men's basketball operations, said the "perfect storm" of holding the tournament in its largest venue during a huge economic downturn has some schools holding unsold tickets.

The tournament is scheduled March 12-15 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The dome has been configured for 36,000 seats – 4,083 fewer than its biggest crowd
in 2001 — in a slightly smaller set-up to help ensure that fans get a good view of the game.

But some schools have been unable to sell their allotment of 2,600 tickets. Hicks said the ACC is redistributing unsold tickets to schools whose demand exceeds the number of tickets they’ve been allotted.

Still, he said, there’s a chance the schools won’t be able to sell all the tickets to their boosters, and that could lead to a public sale of unused tickets. ...

There could be some hesitation among ACC members eager to preserve their boosters’ exclusive control over tickets. But the desire to generate revenue and welcome new fans might trump that hesitation and cause the ACC or the individual schools to sell tickets to the general public.


Never thought in a million years -- even in a down economy -- that this would happen.

1 comment:

Kevin Brewer said...

"Unwashed masses" is one of my favorite phrases.