Unsold Sugar Bowl seats cost UH $129k

HSB Note: "In all, 1,035 leftover tickets to the Bowl Championship Series game cost the university $129,375, or $125 each, UH associate athletic director Carl Clapp said yesterday. The Athletic Department originally underestimated demand for the game, taking only 13,500 of its allotment of 17,500 tickets. The remaining 4,000 tickets were made available to University of Georgia fans. The decision enraged many Warrior fans who were unable to buy tickets. At the time, the Louisiana Superdome, which had sold out its Sugar Bowl tickets, referred fans to a Ticketmaster Web site where tickets cost between $256 and $881.

University of Hawaii officials eventually scrambled to secure an additional 1,866 tickets from the Sugar Bowl and other sources to accommodate fans left empty-handed. Clapp could not immediately recall yesterday when that final batch of tickets was put out for the general public, but he said the school was reminding people that there were tickets "even as we got into Dec. 15th to the 20th." However, he acknowledged that extra tickets may have become available too late for some fans to book airfare and hotel rooms in the Big Easy during the busy holiday season. Also, others might have gotten tickets from scalpers or on the Internet, Clapp noted."

Clapp said that UH football players and staff received 1300 tickets, all of which were:
"accounted for and used. We were looking everywhere for tickets to try and meet the perceived demand." (HSB)

About HF giving back 4000 tickets, Kent Untermann said:
"They were too conservative. Had they taken their original allotment and managed it properly, I'm sure they would have sold out." (HSB)

Clapp said that in future high-profile games, UH would gauge ticket interest with a fan survey or:
"something that might give us information about what the demand level might be for a particular event like that. Everything was kind of a first time," he said. "There are certainly some things we can learn going forward." (HSB)