A string of sellouts?
October 24th, 2007, 11:24 am · Post a Comment · posted by Dan Zeiger
Sun Devil Stadium was sold out for USC’s visit to Arizona State in 2005.
Arizona State has announced that tickets for two of its three remaining home football games are limited: Fewer than 5,000 are available for Saturday’s contest against California, and about 700 are left for the Southern California tilt on Thanksgiving night.
“Our fans have been great,” first-year ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “We’re starting to fill (the stadium) up. I hope we can sell it out for the Cal game and down the road, because that’s what it’s about.”
A large number of walk-up buyers will likely be necessary for this weekend’s game to sell out. However, if that somehow happens, ASU could achieve something not done in a long while: three straight home capacity crowds for football.
The stadium also figures to be full for the Dec. 1 regular-season finale against archrival Arizona, especially if the Sun Devils keep winning.
ASU’s last season with at least three sellouts was the 1996 Rose Bowl campaign, when all of the tickets were distributed for the Washington, Nebraska, USC and California dates. However, only the USC and Cal games were consecutive.
Information on the last time Sun Devil Stadium was sold out three games in a row was not readily available on Wednesday. One might have to go back before the 1988 expansion that brought the facility to its current capacity of 71,706.
Regardless of the ticket count for the next three ASU home contests, the stadium scene could be more raucous than has been experienced in these parts in some time.
“If we continue to have the atmosphere that we’ve been building, that will really help with the home-field advantage,” Erickson said.
Representatives from the Rose, Sugar and Sun bowls will be in attendance at ASU’s game against California.
The name of the Sun Devil defensive lineman is Dane Guthrie, and I have known that since he stepped foot on campus after transferring from Florida two years ago. I have no clue how the first name “Dale” got off my laptop computer screen and into the ASU football notebook in Wednesday’s Tribune. Unfortunately, screwups like that happen from time to time.
The error has been fixed on our Web site. My apologies to Dane, who will be featured in the Tribune later this week.
