Quotes about the ticket problems

Karl Benson said that Sugar Bowl officials contacted him and UH officials before the Washington and asked if UH would give up 5,000 tickets to the Sugar Bowl:
"knowing that the LSU demand would be greater. Hawai'i was faced with making a decision, trying to estimate what their local demand might be and trying to accommodate the Sugar Bowl's request and made a decision that 12,500 tickets might be enough to satisfy the Hawai'i fan base. When LSU didn't get in and it was Georgia, the number was reduced by 1,000. So Hawai'i had 13,500 (tickets) and 4,000 shifted to Georgia." (HA)

HA Note: "UH officials also worried they might get stuck with tickets they could not sell, Benson said. At $125 per ticket, UH would have been liable for $500,000 if it could not sell the 4,000 tickets it let go, Benson said. The value of the tickets would have come out of UH's Sugar Bowl earnings, he said."


UH asked the Sugar Bowl for extra tickets for Hawaii but were told no, UH associate AD John McNamara said:
"We just said, 'Call us if any more tickets become available.' (HA)

HA Note: "Of the reduced allotment of 13,500 tickets, 5,000 were committed before sales even began Monday morning. The football team and university received commitments of 3,000 tickets, McNamara said, 1,500 went to travel packages and another 500 to UH corporate partners. As of 2:30 p.m. yesterday, UH season-ticket holders who didn't have Sugar Bowl seats were being put on a waiting list. Sales to non-season-ticket holders were scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. tomorrow."


Offering to buy back tickets that UH fans don't need, McNamara said:
"If you're caught in that situation, we're willing to see what we can do to take your tickets back. ... We've already had people call us and say, 'Can I return my tickets?' We've taken them back." (HA)

HA Note: "There was no limit on Sugar Bowl tickets, McNamara said, and the average number of tickets purchased by individuals was between five and six."


UH fan David Loui said:
"I'm kind of sick right now. My stomach just turned. I thought it was maybe an Internet hoax. But I called the (UH) ticket office and they did confirm. They said the allotment was sold out." (HA)

HA Note: "Loui was one of 22,800 UH season-ticket holders this season who had an opportunity to buy Sugar Bowl tickets beginning Monday morning. But Loui held out for a friend who is a UH Koa Anuenue sport-package member who gets preferred Sugar Bowl seats in the Superdome. Late yesterday, Loui was frantically trying to reach his friend to see if he, indeed, purchased their tickets."

Hoping his friend got him a ticket, Loui said:
"I just put in a call right now. I don't think I can do anything about it." (HA)


About getting to New Orleans, Kevin Kaneshiro, sales and promotions manager for Vacations Hawaii said:
"There are no longer any nice connections to get there. Four connections, a horrendous schedule — overnight here, overnight there. But there's still availability. Every hour, more seats are being booked. It is just a lot more expensive during one of the busiest holidays of the year. It all calculates to an extremely expensive adventure." (HA)

HA Note: "Loui, who graduated from UH in 1978, spent hours looking at different travel Web sites for the best price with the fewest hassles to see his Warriors. On Sunday afternoon, he found a United Airlines flight through Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans for $900 but could not book a ticket. When he went back to the Web site, "the same ticket had gone up to $1,600," Loui said. He finally found a roundtrip flight for $1,300 that involved flying back home through Chicago, San Francisco and Maui."


Before he found out that UH had sold all of its Sugar Bowl tickets, Loui said:
"I don't think it's going to be a problem to get a game ticket. But if I miss this game, I would be crushed. We've come so far this year. I've got to see it to the end." (HA)