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Auburn football tracking towards largest 'hard' sell out in program history

Justin Hokansonby:Justin Hokanson•07/04/23•

_JHokanson

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Auburn and LSU battle inside Jordan-Hare Stadium during the 2022 season. (Photo by Matt Rudolph/Auburn Live)

AUBURN — Auburn football announced last week record-breaking numbers for season tickets sold. This week, maybe next, the program will reach another milestone never before reached. With around 100 season tickets remaining, athletic department officials tell Auburn Live that 2023 sales are on track to produce the largest “hard sell out” of season tickets in the history of the athletic department.

How is that determined? To determine season ticket numbers, the football program takes full seating capacity and subtracts students and the largest visiting allotment in a given season. That number equals available season tickets. It’s important to note, there have been season ticket sell outs before for Auburn football. However, as noted above, the program is on track to sell the most tickets ever on the way to a hard sell out of season tickets. How is that so?

  • Students account for around 18,000 tickets. There are still student tickets remaining, by the way, as student season tickets are separate and still on sale, although the expectation is those will be sold out soon, too.
  • Visiting team allotments have changed over the years. In the early 2000’s, even within the last decade, Georgia and Alabama were receiving 10-12,000 tickets for games inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. As college football has changed and fans across the country travel to road games less and less, those numbers have decreased to around 8,000 tickets. As the largest visiting team allotments have decreased, available season tickets inside Jordan-Hare Stadium have increased.
  • Therefore, because of less tickets allotted to visitors, and fluctuation in student tickets at times, the number of season tickets available for the 2023 season is higher than ever before. And because the athletic department is going to sell those out, it will be the largest season ticket sell out in the history of the program. According to athletic department officials, the numbers suggest around 700 more season tickets will be sold than the previous all-time high.

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What a difference a year makes: For reference, the athletic department sold around 7,000 less season tickets in 2022.

  • There’s obviously good reason for that. After a 6-7 record in 2021, Bryan Harsin was entering his second season after nearly getting fired during his first offseason. On the field, former starting quarterback and Auburn legacy Bo Nix transferred to Oregon. Optimism was low and apathy was high.

What they’re saying: Rhett Hobart, Deputy AD/External Affairs, obviously credits the coaching change and new energy attributed to Hugh Freeze, but also credits an “intentional” and “organized” campaign of grassroots efforts and digital marketing.

  • “It was clear very early on in the Tigers Unlimited renewal period that excitement was incredibly high for this upcoming season. Any time you see renewals coming it at the pace they were, and the number of new seats being added to those accounts, it gives you a lot of excitement for the opportunities ahead,” Hobart told Auburn Live.
  • “Our collective team – marketing, fan experience, comm, ticketing, TUF, and many others – has worked tirelessly to capitalize on the excitement to sell as many tickets as possible. We all want to have incredible experiences this fall in Jordan-Hare,” he added.
  • The “Auburn Being Auburn” digital campaign continues to lead to significant lead generation according to Hobart, along with nearly 10,000 mailers and door hangers passed out across the Auburn-Opelika area.
  • “This effort continues now, and will then swap over to promoting a full sell out for “Kickoff on The Plains” as soon as season tickets are sold out,” Hobart concluded.

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