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TU returning 3,000 unsold tickets to OSU
Published: 9/14/2010 4:50 PM
Last Modified: 9/14/2010 4:50 PM

For Saturday’s football game at Oklahoma State, the University of Tulsa was given an allotment of 5,000 tickets.

On Tuesday, it was learned that TU is returning 3,000 unsold tickets to OSU.

The game will not be televised. TU and OSU have played some very compelling football games. Only 73 miles separate the TU campus from the OSU campus. This should be a hot ticket and the game should be viewed by a crowd in the 55,000-57,000 range.

Instead, what it is – in the opinion, apparently, of a great many TU fans – is an overpriced ticket at $90. Saturday’s crowd will wind up being 50,000, give or take a few hundred.

TU also was given an allotment of tickets for its Oct. 30 date at Notre Dame. The cost of that ticket is $70.

For OSU’s Sept. 30 home meeting with Texas A&M and Nov. 6 match with Baylor, single-game tickets also are priced at $90. For the Oct. 23 homecoming clash with Nebraska – for what might be the Huskers’ final appearance in Stillwater – the single-game ticket is $100.

Except for the 5,000 tickets allotted to the University of Oklahoma, single-game tickets are not available for the Nov. 27 Bedlam contest at Boone Pickens Stadium. The tickets allotted to OU are priced at $125, reportedly making it is the most expensive single-game ticket in college football.

Bedlam has been designated by OSU as its 2010 “premium game,” with admission limited only to those OSU fans who have purchased a season ticket.

OSU athletic director Mike Holder catches a lot of grief for his pricing and “premium game” policy, but he has a clearly defined bottom line – to sell season tickets and funnel the revenue into the athletic department’s operating budget.

As of Monday, OSU had sold 41,774 season tickets – a figure second only to last year’s school-record total of 45,694.

-- Bill Haisten


Written by
Bill Haisten
Sports Writer



Reader Comments 26 Total

JAH1234 (2 years ago)
Really??? $90 for OSU/Baylor. The FSU/OU game was $89 and those teams were ranked in the top 25.
TURacing52 (2 years ago)
Probably has to do with the fact this game has the most expensive game ticket in the nation this weekend!
pokesn09 (2 years ago)
HA HA!! Good job Holder....way to make us look attractive to other conferences if the Big whatever folds!!!

I'm not a Brain Surgeon, but it looks like your pricing us out of filling the stadium.

I just can't get the picture out of my mind....a Conf-usa team sending back 60% of our overpriced tickets...Don't they know who we are???

Funny.
topcat1 (2 years ago)
Pretty sad that TU can't find more than 2K fans to travel 90 miles to support their team.

Don't give me the prices are too high argument. I have 5 season tickets and a kid in college. I guess graduates from OSU just make more money.
Hal Jordan (2 years ago)
$90 a ticket? This is Tulsa in the year 2010 people. Hello!! We're still catching the low end of the recession. No building going on here, no jobs, Casinos still grabbing ALL the entertainment dollars in the state...

Seriously? They thought people would pay $90? Wow.
cowboytimothy (2 years ago)
$90 is outragious. Family of four would be $360, and in these economic times, it just boggles the mind that OSU has priced these folks out of seeing this game. As though the country were just humming along, really train wreck type timing. Holder is probably taking orders from Boone, I'm not sure he pulls the levers on this pricing policy.
whereintheworld (2 years ago)
topcat, you are something else... "I guess graduates from OSU just make more money." Haha! If you only knew what it was like to be a part of the network of people and employers linked to TU. TU grads get great jobs and the head of my department made it his personal obligation to assure everyone had good jobs before they graduate.

TU grads are much more wealthy on average and part of that is being smart with money. $90 for a OSU football game is a ripoff, especially OSU-Tulsa. If it were some kind of championship or two high ranked teams (OU-FSU) then that price would make sense.

Also, there is this thing called the internet where there were much cheaper tickets to the game (if you were smart enough to buy them early).
Miss Parker (2 years ago)
Kinda like shooting yourself in the foot, then asking how did that happen?
Climb Another Tree (2 years ago)
worst.ticket.policy.ever.
DrewTU (2 years ago)
The ticket price is obscene. Notre Dame has 100x the history of OSU and they don't have the gall to charge that much. Credit card debt is not worth sitting beyond the end zone.
colin1497 (2 years ago)
Poor TU fans, all they can do is sit around and whine about the ticket prices and listen to the game on the radio. We should never schedule these clowns again. What a bunch of whiny losers.
tulsandn (2 years ago)
TU fans are smart enough to know $90 to see a OSU football game is just plain stupid....

Now if it was TU-OU in Norman.... That's a different story....
a little logic (2 years ago)
It's actually pretty simple...

50,000 X $90 = $4,500,000
60,000 X $70 = $4,200,000

Who cares about selling out the stadium when you can sell out for the $$
MexiMike (2 years ago)
This is what kills me about OSU fans. You want the success, you want the better facilities, but you don't want to pay to get it.

Look, it's fairly simple. You can't have it both ways. You cannot have an immediately successful football team and also get to pay lower prices for SINGLE GAME tickets (please note that I said "single game" because season tickets are as low as $300 which is $45 a game).

The fact is that OSU is trying to catch up with the big boys and at a rapid rate. In order to do that, you have to increase the athletic budget. The money that funds that athletic budget does not come from thin air.

If you are content with 6 or 7 win seasons, fine. Sit at home with your hands under your butt. But for so many of the OSU fans to demand success now and then not want to pay the price for it is simply ludacris.

Here's an idea. Buy the season tickets for $300. Sell all the tickets you don't want for a cheaper price to those who can't afford the higher single game ticket price. I guarantee you'll make back most of your money.

Or, sit on a website comment section and complain about it thus accomplishing nothing. Whatever.
'50s man (2 years ago)
The Oklahoma A&M Aggies think they are big time because they changed their name to OSU?
steven arthur (2 years ago)
If your football program is good enough u don't need gimmicks and inflated prices....just look down the road in Norman.
pokesn09 (2 years ago)
"This is what kills me about OSU fans. You want the success, you want the better facilities, but you don't want to pay to get it."

T.Boone paid for the facility upgrades....I have no interest in paying him back.

Secondly, money don't but you championships...just ask the Dallas Cowboys. LOL!
senor notas (2 years ago)
Well now. I hope the TU athletic dept prices next years OSU at TU tickets at $100.00 or more for OSU fans. Tit for tat.
pokesn09 (2 years ago)
Then we would return 90% of the tickets!

GO POKES!
Golden Hurricane (2 years ago)
I find all of this laughable! First of all, I will get into this game for $50 or less, guaranteed. Secondly, for anyone to think that an OSU ticket is worth $90 is an idiot. This is one of the losingest programs in the history of college football and generally can't put more than 40-45,000 in the seats. Very sad that Holder feels the need to price gauge with such an inferior product!

Hey Mike, you aren't Oklahoma, you aren't Notre Dame, heck, you aren't even Arkansas. You Oklahoma State and you are stuck in the middle of nowhere and there is no compelling reason for a person to go to Stillwater, especially not your .500, at best, football team.

I personally can't wait to get to Notre Dame stadium and enjoy a true tradition rich college football Saturday that will be well worth the money I earn. I also can't wait to snag a ticket on Saturday for a bargain price from one your fans that will be willing to unload for whatever they can get because no one is willing to pay the premium! It will be fun to be in that half empty stadium watching TU roll up points on your porous defense. Kicking your butts will be extra special this year. And as for the guy who said "we shouldn't schedule these clowns", well, your probably right, it can't be any fun knowing you've been beaten 27 times by the smallest school in division one! Enjoy your whipping on Saturday...freaking chumps!
Joe carter (2 years ago)
The one thing that an objective observer can take away from this discussion is that the majority of TU fans are justifiably terrified of the whipping that Wichita State is going to leash on them in hoops this coming year.
Golden Hurricane (2 years ago)
That's funny Joe! Wichita State is beneath us, we don't really worry about you guys, in fact, the scariest thing about playing Wichita State is enduring the smell of the city of from the moment you reach that Marriott on Kellogg. I am sorry you are forced to live in that cesspool!
Graybeard (2 years ago)
Fire Mike Holder, Boone.
MexiMike (2 years ago)
Golden Hurricane, do you have any clue what you are talking about? First of all, OSU football averaged over 51,000 people in attendance last year. And who are you to talk? When is the last time TU sold out their 30,000 seat stadium? Never.

.500 at best football team? Is that your genius prediction? Would you like to make a wager on that? I doubt you would.

I also highly doubt anyone will see you here on Sunday or afterward so that you can eat your crow should OSU win. And before you start criticizing pourous defenses, you may want to take a look in the mirror...chump.
hootie (2 years ago)
a little logic - not all tickets are $90, only the individual tickets that are for sale. There are approximatly 18k individual tickets for sale. Season tickets have already been sold and are a cheaper price since they are bundled.

As of now approximatly 8k individual tickets have been sold

8,000 x 90 = 720,000

More than likely you would sell 3-5k more tickets (based upon tickets sold for first 2 games that had $70 tickets)

12,000 x 70 = 840,000

This does not include the additional revenue that would be generated by additional concessions sales with additional people.
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Tulsa World Sports Writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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Tulsa World Sports Writer Kelly Hines joined the World staff in September 2007. She grew up in the Oklahoma City area, was valedictorian at her high school and attended Oklahoma State University. She previously worked at The Oklahoman and KOTV and in the World's web and news departments.

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