Ticket Sales Lagging For UH Football Opener

By Fred Guzman

For whatever the reason, there doesn’t seem to be as much buzz as usual surrounding the opening of the University of Hawaii football season.

UH kicks off the campaign on Saturday and, at this point, well less than 35,000 tickets have been sold for the game against the Colorado Buffaloes at 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium.

You would think those numbers would be higher for a matchup between a high-powered home team coming off a 10-win season and a share of a conference title playing against a visiting team that is making its debut as a member of the expanded Pac-12.

Meantime, season tickets are also down about 360 from last year, according to the Star-Advertister, to 20,629 as of the end of business on Tuesday.

At this point, including single-game sales, UH is right around the 30,000 mark with the athletic department hopeful of surpassing the 35,000 mark.

The lowest home-opening crowd against a BCS conference opponent was 33,804 for the Arizona game in 1998 for what would turn out to be winless season under coach Fred Von Appen.

Last year’s home opener against USC attracted 41,776.

Athletic director Jim Donovan, who is in charge of administering and balancing a tight budget, hopes that a significant walk-up crowd helps provide a late boost to the sagging attendance numbers.