And it’s getting warmer
An otherwise innocuous press release about single-game tickets for three University of Virginia home football games has my attention right now.
Single-gamers are available for six of the seven UVa. home games this fall – the season finale against Virginia Tech being the exception there, but there are still tickets to the Tech game available in a three-game package that includes the Sept. 5 opener against William & Mary and the Sept. 12 contest against nationally-ranked TCU.
But that wasn’t necessarily what got my attention. It’s more that tickets are still available, including Tech tickets, which surprises me, after the marketing efforts that I’ve been made privy to.
Two former – emphasis on former – season-ticket holders reported to me over the weekend that they’ve been receiving calls from the athletics department asking them to renew. One of the reports said it was Virginia Athletics Foundation executive director Dirk Katstra who made the pitch to him.
More interesting than even that is what the response was – both turned down the requests. One said he detailed why in a letter – paraphrasing, he said the message he delivered was that he doesn’t think the football program is heading in the right direction under Al Groh, and that he won’t be renewing his tickets until a change is made.
This is on the heels of a 2008 campaign that not only saw Virginia finish 5-7 but more importantly for the bottom line of the program had only one sellout, the opener against Southern Cal, and there were wide swaths of fans disguised as empty seats for the rest of the home schedule.
When they’re still trying to hawk tickets for ACC games and, bygod, the Tech game, on the eve of the season, the economics can’t be looking good.
Oh, yeah, Al, you’re on the hot seat all right.
- Column by Chris Graham
Related posts:
- UVa. football tickets on sale Item by Chris Graham freepress2@ntelos.net Single-game tickets for two Virginia football games went on sale this morning. Tickets for UVa. home games with Richmond (Sept....
- BeatTech Years ago, right after the Scott Stadium expansion had been completed, I had UVa. football season tickets with a group of friends sitting in the...
- UVa. football season tickets on sale Season tickets for the 2009 Virginia football home games are available to the general public and the University’s faculty and staff. The Cavaliers’ seven-game home...
- UVa. releases men’s basketball schedule A 17-game home schedule, featuring eight games against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents and a game against 2009 NIT Champion Penn State in the Big Ten-ACC...
- Tix for Tech’s season opener available Item by Chris Graham freepress2@ntelos.net Approximately 1,400 tickets for Virginia Tech’s opening football game against East Carolina in Charlotte are on sale today. Tickets for...
Groh’s best years came with the last of George Welsh’s recruits – Matt Schaab, Heath Miller, Marques Hagans. Since they moved on, it’s been struggle city.
Very good point. The Groh years have seen good work on recruiting offensive linemen, defensive linemen, linebackers, and little else.
The team hasn’t had a decent starting quarterback since Hagans graduated, has not had anything at running back (Alvin Pearman and Wali Lundy were also Welsh holdovers), been inferior at wideout and cornerback (though this year corner could finally be a strength).
The thing is, Groh can’t say he doesn’t have the football team that he wanted. Groh football, like Bill Parcells football, is smashmouth – line-dominated, conservative, keep the score low, keep the game in reach, and you do that with the guys he has recruited.
Unfortunately for him, he’s not as adept at the Xs and Os as Parcells, and the low-scoring games they favor leave little margin for error. Last year’s team could have easily been 8-4 with any offensive punch, but the offensive punch graduated with Schaub, Hagans, Lundy, Alvin Pearman and Heath Miller.
The AFP called it at the time, UVA will lose more than $2 Million this year in lost ticket sales and concessions. Having Al Groh NOT coach your team is a bargain at any price.
Bold prediction time – after a blowout loss at UNC drops UVa. to 1-3, Groh resigns on Oct. 5 and Gregg Brandon is named the interim for the remainder of the season. And UVa. finishes a 5-7 campaign with an upset of Virginia Tech.
That is definitely a bold prediction. I do agree on the 5-7 part. The apathy I feel toward Virginia football is pretty sad, considering how rabid of a fan I used to be.
I still like Saturdays in Scott Stadium. But I don’t go expecting a win. Because I don’t want to leave disappointed.
I have to agree with the comments, posted about Groh, when he took over from Welsh, he had a great corp of players. Watching the Virginia program the last few years has been a bug disappointment for Wahoo nation. So where is the title that was promised in the poster of Wali Lundy. Other than Chris Long, we haven’t really had any stand out players, Jameel Sewell if he can keep up his grades, has the promise of being a good QB but that is if, and it is a strong if, he can keep the grades up. One has to wonder what Groh was thinking by not playing Hall at QB until the Tech game last year. Al is good at defense but offense is by far one of his weaknesses. I view the hiring of Gregg Brandon as the University’s way of filling his position in an unsaid way. With that said, I see UVa football having a lot of empty seats and another missed ACC Championship.