Why Kentucky Will Not Sell 40,000 Season Tickets

UK Athletics is making a final push to sell more than Kentucky football 40,000 season tickets, a mark last surpassed in Mark Stoops' first season that will be extremely difficult to reach. The athletic department launched a Yahtzee! campaign in July to help get to 40,000.  If enough tickets are sold, one section of fans will play Yahtzee! at each home game for a chance to win two free 2018 season tickets.  As of today, there have only been 33,553 season tickets sold according to Joe Mussato. There's still more than two and a half weeks until UK opens Kroger Field against Eastern Kentucky, but there are two reasons why UK will not sell 40,000 season tickets in 2017.

Better, Cheaper Options

Season ticket sales have dipped nationwide over the last five years, thanks to expansive TV deals that make almost every game available in HD.  That's not the better option I'm talking about. Launched last year, UK now offers a "Pocket Pass."  Instead of spending $310 for upper level season tickets, you can by a virtual pocket pass for all seven home games for just $205.  The only catch: your seats change before every game.  Some may see that as a negative, but at times you can get lucky enough to sit in the lower level.  The Pocket Pass does not count toward UK's season ticket sales total. The best deal is the flex pack.  You can have lower level tickets for three games at just $174.  The three games aren't bad, and you have options. Fans can get good seats for big games, then buy tickets for the rest on the day of the game.  Choosing either of these packages over an expensive season ticket commitment is a no-brainer.

The Move

My family had season tickets for UK football games every of Commonwealth Stadium's existence, until last year.  One reason why that's no longer the case: my parents now spend most of their Saturdays watching my brother play at WKU.  Still, through his first two years of college football, my parents held onto their seats, attended a few games each year and gave the rest away to friends.  Why get rid of them now?  The seats. Our seats were not great seats.  They were halfway up the upper deck on the 40-yard line.  In the move, they were actually able to move to a better location closer to the field.  That doesn't mean the seats were better. My parents were moved away from people they had befriended and set next to for decades.  Those people were replaced by obnoxious jerks.  It was so bad, one guy in the row in front of them wore a UofL jersey to every game.  Why pay to be annoyed the entire game? That person is an exception to the rule, but my family's story is a microcosm of the larger problem created when fans were forced to move their seats.  Fans liked where they were and who they were with at Commonwealth Stadium.  While the upper class received luxurious benefits, the lower class of fans received no benefit and were forced away from the place they used to call home seven Saturdays a year.

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When changes happen, you can't please everybody.  Unfortunately, this change displeased enough people for the common fan to discard their season tickets to pursue other, more affordable options. More wins and postseason play have inspired fans to purchase more season tickets, but less than you'd expect.  UK is still 125 season tickets short of surpassing last year's total and 6,467 short of its ultimate goal.  Yahtzee! has helped brought more talent to campus, but it will not bring in more than 40,000 season-ticket holders. If you'd like to prove me wrong, you can buy season, single game, Pocket Pass or the three-game Flex Pack tickets here.