Time for WVU fans to shift focus for a while — and check out hoops sales
With WVU’s football team tied for last place in the Big 12 with Iowa State and Oklahoma (!) and injuries mounting, I thought maybe now is a time to shift Mountaineer fans’ focus a bit to basketball.
Since West Virginia’s men last took the court, their coach was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A new roster has been fashioned. And, shoot, don’t look now, but the Gold-Blue Debut scrimmage – basically the team unveiling – is set for 7 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Coliseum in Morgantown. The charity event against Bowling Green is two weeks after.
So, I wondered how ticket sales were going. Surely, Huggins will be honored sometime right off the bat, right? Also, I know it’s kind of a tradition, but he seems to like this new bunch. He’s come around to actually liking the transfer portal.
So, I reached out to WVU’s Matt Wells, Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs and Leader in the Clubhouse With the Longest Title.
I’d looked at the chart posted for those interested in buying tickets. (It’s at WVUGAME.com.) I saw that all the lower-level regular season ticket packages are gone as well as many of the upper-sideline (straight up sans angles) on both sides of the court.
Of course, there are still plenty of season ticket packages left, especially upper-baseline, but at least 43 percent of the Coliseum tickets have been gobbled up.
Matt?
“We’re approaching 6,000 season tickets sold,” he said. “It looks like we will end up somewhere in the 6,000 to 6,200 range.
“Season ticket sales under Coach Huggins continue to remain strong. There’s a lot of excitement for what should be a very exciting season at the WVU Coliseum.”
Can you tell he’s excited?
It will be the 10th time WVU has sold over 6,000 season tickets since Huggins arrived. The season before he hit Morgantown, Wells said the number was 5,700.
As it stands, the current number is around the middle of the pack for a Huggins-coached team. Yet it’s early. If the Mountaineers have early success against a very tough schedule, I get the feeling this could be a special year. In addition to a full Big 12 slate, WVU will host teams like Mount St. Mary’s, Penn, UAB, Buffalo and Auburn. (If you shrug at some of those teams, UAB won 27 games last season and went to the NCAA tournament; Buffalo won 19 games. Oh, and Auburn went 28-6.) At the end of November, the Mountaineers will participate in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament in Portland, Oregon. They’ll first face Purdue, then probably play Gonzaga and then either Duke, Florida, Oregon State or Xavier. WVU also plays at Pitt and Xavier early in the season.
We’ll see. Mountaineer fans are certainly ready for some crackle. I remember well when they set a Coliseum record by averaging 12,377 in 14 games in 2009-10. (The current configuration holds 14,000.)
Anyway, it’s time to throw some focus Huggs’ way.
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.
