With roughly 8,000 of their allotted tickets still unsold for the upcoming Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis spoke with Mike Griffith of MLive.com about what he believes is actually contributing to the low demand.
"I'm a little disappointed that the numbers are so low, but there are a lot of factors that have gone into it,'' Hollis said. "The ticketing process has changed dramatically over the past five years, how tickets are sold and how savvy fans are.''
While the Spartans are hardly coming off a banner year, and therefore do not offer the same type of draw as last season, Hollis still recognizes issues that are commonplace not just at Big Ten schools, but on campuses around the country as well. The emergence of online companies like StubHub, Hollis says, is something that has made many fans less apt to immediately run to a school's official ticket office whenever tickets become available.
"I notice as you open the ticket envelope (sent out to donors and alumni) for this game, StubHub is staring you right in the face," he said. "It's a very viable third-party seller that for many people in their 30s or 40s is their first option.''
Hollis encourages Michigan State fans from all over the country to use the Spartan Ticket Office in the future, even though many price-conscious buyers may not entirely see eye-to-eye with that concept. The Spartans should still be well represented in the stands this weekend against TCU regardless of the low number of team-affiliated tickets sold, but this is clearly a growing issue right now in college football.