Texas Tech tops 27,000 in football season-ticket sales
Season-ticket sales for Texas Tech football games have eclipsed 27,000, a number that's in the mid-range of annual sales compared to the past 20 seasons.
Season tickets sold stood at 27,453 as of late Wednesday, nearly 6,000 more than last year.
"We thought it was ambitious just because of the jump it would be, but our goal was and still is 30,000. See if we can get to 30,000 season tickets," Tech senior associate athletics director Robert Giovannetti said Saturday. "Realize, we still have a month left to get to it, but that's the goal."
Tech opens the season with a Sept. 3 home game against Murray State, but will continue to offer season tickets beyond that date.
Sell another 600 season tickets, and it will be a five-season high for the program, though the Jones AT&T Stadium capacity and tickets available were sharply reduced for the COVID-disrupted 2020 season.
Tech exceeded season-ticket sales of 31,000 six times in a seven-year period from 2010 through 2016, but has not reached 30,000 for a single year since. The all-time high, according to Tech records, was 38,320 in 2014, when the Red Raiders were coming off an 8-5 season with a Holiday Bowl upset of Arizona State.
The numbers do not include seats reserved for students, normally about 13,000.
As for the current pace of sales, Giovannetti said, "I think it's been really good. Our fans have always been supportive, and I think there's a lot of excitement about (new coach) Joey (McGuire). If you look at the number for new season tickets, it's been good. Our renewal rate was higher than kind of the benchmark. It's over 90 percent, which is good. I think that we can draw that to Joey.
"So I'm hoping with what'll happen in the last few weeks, the excitement now that camp is going on, that people will realize, 'Hey, I still can get on the train and I want to get my tickets.' "
The Red Raiders have seven home games for the first time since 2009. Among them are Big 12 matchups with Texas, West Virginia, Baylor, Kansas and Oklahoma.
The lowest-cost season tickets are priced at $195. Tech also offers the Red Raider Pass for $160, a deal that includes a different seat location for all seven home games.
For the past week, through midnight Sunday, Tech officials have said they are waiving service charges on all ticket packages, including single-game sales, and parking passes.
Single-game ticket prices start at $15 for Murray State, $20 for Kansas, $35 for West Virginia and Houston, $50 for Oklahoma and Baylor and $95 for Texas.
Tech is also offering group tickets at reduced single-game rates, beginning at $10 for Murray State and Kansas, $20 for West Virginia and Houston, $35 for Oklahoma and $40 for Baylor. Rates are available for groups of 20 or more.
Inside the numbers
Here are Texas Tech's football season-ticket sales for the past 20 years, according to information released by the athletics department. Additionally, Tech reserves about 12,500 to 13,000 seats per season for students, which are not included in the numbers below.
2002: 23,284
2003: 30,182
2004: 24,232
2005: 26,852
2006: 25,863
2007: 24,862
2008: 27,520
2009: 26,199
2010: 32,227
2011: 26,728
2012: 31,531
2013: 31,227
2014: 38,320
2015: 33,586
2016: 34,577
2017: 29,710
2018: 27,987
2019: 24,460
2020: 3,560
2021: 21,661
2022: 27,453*
― as of Wednesday
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech tops 27,000 in football season-ticket sales
