Wednesday, August 30, 2006

No Bowls? No problem for ticket sales


It was announced ealier this week from the MSU ticket office that over 60,000 sets of season tickets have been purchased for the upcoming season.

The 61,227 season sets sold is the second most all-time, coming up just short of the all-time record of 61,479 set for the 2000 campaign.

So let's get this straight after two straight losing, bowl-less seasons, after all the complaining and calling for John L. Smith's head, the Spartan faithfull dug deep into their pockets and bucked up for a near record amount of season tickets sold.

Is anyone getting this?

Setting the record after the 1999 season made sense. The program had shown some promise. Sure, Nick Saban left for the Bayou, but MSU was coming off its best season in years (10-2) and a victory over Florida in the Citrus Bowl.

So why so many tickets sold after going a combined 10-13 over the past two seasons and experts predicting no better than a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten season this year?

Is it simply to see Drew Stanton lead what is sure to be one of the top offenses in the country? Or is there legitimate hope among Spartan fans that the experts have somehow overlooked this team and it'll be the surprise of the conference as Penn State was a year ago? I can't explain it, but I am hoping the real reason is the latter.

One thing Spartan fans can say is that they are loyal, possibly to a fault (Detroit Lions anyone?). MSU has been ranked in the top 20 nationally in attendance in each of the past 50 years, despite having most of their success during the early part of that span.

The fans are paying good money to see luxury suites built and other renovations to the stadium, let's hope the team pays them back on the field this season.

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