No donation fee for some UT tickets

Posted: Thursday, December 13, 2012 7:00 pm

By MIKE STRANGE
Associated Press
You can get Tennessee season football tickets without a donation — if you don’t mind the climb.
Hoping to win back fans after three consecutive losing seasons, Tennessee is offering a limited number of 2013 season tickets without the usual required donation.
The $300 season tickets are for the higher rows of the south end zone upper deck.
Jimmy Stanton, associate athletic director for communications, said the no-donation clause was a departure from past seasons.
“We saw an opportunity to utilize some inventory in the upper deck of the south end zone to create an even more affordable season-ticket option,” Stanton said. “A $300 season ticket with no donation requirement provides fans the opportunity to see all Tennessee football home games next year at a great price.”
Stanton said earlier this week UT had sold approximately one third of the 1,500 no-donation tickets.
The arrival of new coach Butch Jones comes at a good time for UT’s season-ticket campaign.
The vast majority of available tickets cost $370 or $391 (chairback), with donations to the Tennessee Fund ranging from as little as $50 to $2,500 per seat.
Tennessee’s average attendance in 2012 was 89,965 (tickets sold), a 5 percent decline from 2011, according to an al.com survey of NCAA attendance averages.
College football attendance at the FBS level in general declined slightly from the previous season.
Five SEC programs out of 14 showed increases in 2012: Vanderbilt by 15 percent, Missouri 9 percent, Arkansas 2 percent, Ole Miss and South Carolina 1 percent each.
Kentucky declined by 17 percent, Auburn by 4 percent and Florida by 2 percent. Five others declined by 1 percent or less.
Tennessee will open the season with home games against Austin Peay (Aug. 31) and Western Kentucky (Sept. 7), coached by Bobby Petrino.
South Alabama (Sept. 28), Georgia (Oct. 5) and South Carolina (Oct. 19) will also visit Neyland Stadium, and the home schedule will conclude with Auburn (Nov. 9) and Vanderbilt (Nov. 23).
Oregon, Florida, Ala-bama, Missouri and Ken-tucky are the road games. Published in The Messenger 1 2.13.12