University of Iowa students with season football tickets will get stubs for all seven home dates in the fall, but some general-public fans may not be as fortunate.
In a release on Sunday, the athletics department stated that at the current pace tickets are selling, requests for all home games may not be fulfilled because of space conflicts with the Iowa State game.
Pam Finke, the director of Hawkeye ticket operations, said the Iowa State band will come to Kinnick for the Sept. 11 contest and will need space in the north end zone.
While the number of visiting fan tickets is usually predetermined, bands are another issue. Indiana and Northern Iowa’s ensembles came last season and were put in a north end zone section. But this year, demand for season tickets has risen, meaning the north end zone seats are not as readily available.
Demand isn’t a problem at Iowa State because visiting bands are placed in temporary seating at Jack Trice Stadium. But at Kinnick, bands must occupy bleacher seats.
The current plan if the general-public season tickets sell out, something officials expect to happen by end of the week, is to offer partial season packages to some first-time buyers. First-time season-ticket purchasers in the general public may be offered a package with all games aside from the Cy-Hawk contest at an appropriately lowered price.
Ben Davis, who graduated from UI in the winter with a degree in management and finance and now works in the Chicago area, recently purchased his first non-student season tickets. The 22-year old said while he understands Iowa and Iowa State have an agreement to accommodate visiting bands, officials should consider a process for those who can’t get all seven games.
“Maybe don’t give them to first-timers who aren’t alumni,” said Davis, who plans on driving the three-and-a-half hours to attend games next year. “I don’t think it’s very fair to alumni. I [went to Iowa] for five years.”
Even with the increase in season-ticket sales, Iowa still must fulfill its understanding with Iowa State to allow for the correct number of seats. Big Ten games are usually fixed at 4,000 visitor tickets, with the exception of 3,000 seats at Wisconsin and Minnesota.
But teams can put more or fewer into a nonconference contract if the two teams can agree on the numbers, said Bill Jones, the Ohio State associate athletics director for external affairs.
“Let’s say, for instance, Akron wanted to come in here,” said Jones, referring to a potential nonconference game with an in-state opponent. “We may give them 5,000 seats [instead of 4,000].”
The philosophy of Iowa’s agreement may be similar in that with a local team, there are more anticipated visiting fans.
But just because 4,000 seats are given to Iowa State, that doesn’t mean Cyclone fans will be in all of the seats. It appears some possible partial season-ticket holders are prepared to be in Kinnick for the 2010 game even if that means finding other means of entrance.
“If I didn’t get it with my season ticket, I would try to buy a single-game ticket,” Davis said. “I know some people at Iowa State who could help.”