Football season-ticket sales are down from 2014, according to the Iowa Athletics Department.
As of June 19, the Athletics Ticket Office had sold 32,656 season tickets to the general public. The total includes sales in the premium seating areas of Kinnick Stadium but does not include the majority of tickets likely to be bought by more than 650 new general-public season-ticket holders — who are still in the process of selecting their seat locations.
Despite the drop in sales, Hawkeye Athletics Director Gary Barta is not surprised or worried about the ticket sale numbers and attendance at Kinnick for the 2015 season.
“This isn’t a surprise,” he said in a release. “ We expected a decline in the general-public category, planned for it during the budgeting process, and jump-started our group sales for 2015 in response to it.”
Even with a decline in season tickets last season, Iowa ultimately increased its attendance per game to 67, 512 — ranking 22nd in the nation.
By the end of 2014, Iowa had sold 39,364 general-public season tickets.
“Now that we are down the path of executing our plan, I believe our goals of another increase in per-game attendance and another year with a ranking in the top 25 are attainable,” Barta said.
The Athletics Department expects to sell roughly a couple thousand tickets between July and the middle of September. Along with the 650-plus new season-ticket holders, additional summertime sales are expected to bring the total of general-public season ticket sales to somewhere between 35,000 and 37,000 for the upcoming season.
Barta also noted that sales to UI faculty and staff are down but suggested that those numbers could eventually climb back up to where they were last year. He also expressed optimism about the trend of ticket sales to UI students.
“Sales to current UI students were up at the end of the spring semester, which was great to see,” he said in the release. “Sales to incoming freshmen are up more than 40 percent, and that’s very exciting.”
The athletics director also believes that although season-ticket sales are down, many who decided to not renew their ticket packages will be in attendance at Kinnick in one way or another come fall.
“I’m also hearing form lots of fans who didn’t renew their season tickets and often their message is that they still intend to be in Kinnick this fall as a three-game ticket customer or a single-game customer,” Barta said in the release.
The ticket office started taking orders for three-game packages on Monday, and single game sales are set to begin in early July.
The Hawkeyes will play seven home games this fall — including night games against Pittsburgh on Sept. 19 and Minnesota on Nov. 14.
“We’re committed to regaining our momentum. Some of that is related to doing everything possible to make the game-day experience fun, entertaining, and memorable,” Barta said in the release.
“Some of that, of course, is related to what happens on the playing field and, ultimately, winning.”
Iowa finished 7-6 overall in 2014, with a 4-3 record at Kinnick.