Article on the Helena IR Website today regarding the ticket situation:
Grizzlies treating season opener versus Bison like a Montana State at Montana game
16 hours ago • By JEFF KOLPACK Fargo (N.D.) Forum
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FARGO, N.D. -- The University of Montana will play its rivalry football game away from Washington-Grizzly Stadium this season, traveling to Montana State for the last game of the season. But that doesn't mean the school's ticket office has it easy this season.
Getting a seat for the season opener will be just as tough.
The Montana facilities and operations folks are treating the North Dakota State at Montana game on Aug. 29 the same as if the Grizzlies were hosting the Bobcats. It will be the season opener for all of college football on ESPN, but fans from both teams seem to be more interested in seeing it in person. The stadium has a capacity of 25,217 -- and not much room for anything more than that.
"We have a seat pretty much everywhere we can think of," said Chuck Maes, Montana's associate athletic director for internal operations.
Single-game tickets go on sale July 20, and Maes figures there will only be a few hundred available that day. Montana had a season-ticket base of 18,644 last year and is expected to be somewhere around that this season. The rest of the tickets are allocated to students, with booster club members getting first access to single-game tickets.
So what will Bison fans have to do? The school is receiving an allotment of about 700 tickets -- the exact number is expected to be known later this week -- and those will be distributed based on its now well-known points system.
"We haven't finalized details yet," said Josh Hemingway, NDSU's director of ticket operations. "We're waiting on things like sections and cost and then we need to break down the need of the players and staff and so forth."
It's possible, Maes said, that student tickets could be available since school does not start until the Monday after the Bison-Grizzlies game.
"We're working on how we're going to get tickets out to them and we're trying to get the word out to them to get them here," he said. "It's possible we may have some student tickets available at the end of that week once they're passed their deadline. But for all intents and purposes, it's sold out right now."
Maes has been at Montana since 1988, and there is only one other nonconference game that he can recall that has this kind of pregame hype and ticket activity. That was when Appalachian State came to Missoula in 2013.
That game didn't match the pregame expectations for at least one reason: Appalachian State was mediocre, and Montana won 30-6. But Grizzlies fans didn't know it wasn't a typical App State team before the game.
NDSU followers have gotten accustomed to the hard-to-find ticket game, thanks to its appearance in four straight FCS national title games in Frisco, Texas. Internet sites like StubHub.com are practically bookmarked by Bison fans that don't qualify for the opposing team allotment.
If nothing else, Grizzlies fans "love entertaining and (Bison fans) can go through all of the tailgate areas," Maes said. "They'll have a blast out here doing that."
Many NDSU fans do just that at Fargodome home games: Go tailgate and watch the game somewhere else on television.
"They're almost in the same situation that we are," Hemingway said. "High season tickets, a lot of demand and not much availability."
Grizzlies treating season opener versus Bison like a Montana State at Montana game
16 hours ago • By JEFF KOLPACK Fargo (N.D.) Forum
(0) Comments
FARGO, N.D. -- The University of Montana will play its rivalry football game away from Washington-Grizzly Stadium this season, traveling to Montana State for the last game of the season. But that doesn't mean the school's ticket office has it easy this season.
Getting a seat for the season opener will be just as tough.
The Montana facilities and operations folks are treating the North Dakota State at Montana game on Aug. 29 the same as if the Grizzlies were hosting the Bobcats. It will be the season opener for all of college football on ESPN, but fans from both teams seem to be more interested in seeing it in person. The stadium has a capacity of 25,217 -- and not much room for anything more than that.
"We have a seat pretty much everywhere we can think of," said Chuck Maes, Montana's associate athletic director for internal operations.
Single-game tickets go on sale July 20, and Maes figures there will only be a few hundred available that day. Montana had a season-ticket base of 18,644 last year and is expected to be somewhere around that this season. The rest of the tickets are allocated to students, with booster club members getting first access to single-game tickets.
So what will Bison fans have to do? The school is receiving an allotment of about 700 tickets -- the exact number is expected to be known later this week -- and those will be distributed based on its now well-known points system.
"We haven't finalized details yet," said Josh Hemingway, NDSU's director of ticket operations. "We're waiting on things like sections and cost and then we need to break down the need of the players and staff and so forth."
It's possible, Maes said, that student tickets could be available since school does not start until the Monday after the Bison-Grizzlies game.
"We're working on how we're going to get tickets out to them and we're trying to get the word out to them to get them here," he said. "It's possible we may have some student tickets available at the end of that week once they're passed their deadline. But for all intents and purposes, it's sold out right now."
Maes has been at Montana since 1988, and there is only one other nonconference game that he can recall that has this kind of pregame hype and ticket activity. That was when Appalachian State came to Missoula in 2013.
That game didn't match the pregame expectations for at least one reason: Appalachian State was mediocre, and Montana won 30-6. But Grizzlies fans didn't know it wasn't a typical App State team before the game.
NDSU followers have gotten accustomed to the hard-to-find ticket game, thanks to its appearance in four straight FCS national title games in Frisco, Texas. Internet sites like StubHub.com are practically bookmarked by Bison fans that don't qualify for the opposing team allotment.
If nothing else, Grizzlies fans "love entertaining and (Bison fans) can go through all of the tailgate areas," Maes said. "They'll have a blast out here doing that."
Many NDSU fans do just that at Fargodome home games: Go tailgate and watch the game somewhere else on television.
"They're almost in the same situation that we are," Hemingway said. "High season tickets, a lot of demand and not much availability."
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