Las Vegas Bowl sellout causes more ill will between BYU, Utah fans
For the first part of its existence, the Las Vegas Bowl had the problem of creating enough interest for its game.
Now it has the other problem.
There is so much interest that many Utah fans are upset they can't get tickets to the Dec. 19 game against Brigham Young. The game, which will kick off at 12:30 p.m. and be televised on ABC, was announced Monday as a sellout at the 38,500-seat Sam Boyd Stadium.
Bowl executive director John Saccenti is quite aware of the Utah fans' complaints, having been inundated with calls and emails. Many also have taken to social media to blast the bowl.
Their complaints boil down to two issues:
* BYU got a head start on selling tickets because the Cougars were invited last Wednesday. The Utes didn't get their invitation until Sunday, meaning hundreds if not thousands of tickets available for the general public were gone by the time Utah fans knew their team was in this game.
* The Cougars were given an allotment of 11,000 tickets to compared to 7,500 for Utah.
As to the first complaint, the bowl didn't know Utah would be the opponent when it invited BYU, so there lingered the possibility of a Pac-12 team with low fan interest in this game. Either way, a bowl director's job is not to be fair to both fan bases, but to put rear ends in the seats.
"(Utah fans) seem to think we put our (general-public) tickets on sale last week when we invited BYU," Saccenti said. "That's just not the case. We didn't put our tickets on sale when we first announced BYU and give them first crack at it. These tickets have been on sale since June 1 for the public."
And as for the latter complaint, blame the Pac-12, which along with the Mountain West used to receive an 11,000-ticket allotment. The Mountain West kept its level at that amount, and BYU fills in for the MW team this year. But Pac-12 teams were concerned about buying so many tickets in advance, so in 2013, the conference negotiated a lower ticket commitment and higher payout (from $1.1 million to $1.3 million).
The contract runs through 2019.
"They keep telling us they need more, they need more, but their conference and the ADs (athletic directors) didn't want more," Saccenti said.
BYU sold out its allotment on Monday, and Utah was taking pre-orders with the full expectation of selling its portion.
That hasn't satisfied some Utah fans, who took to Twitter to voice their complaints. Here's a sampling of how they vented through tweets:
Utahman Sir @utahfootball1: I got online today right after the announcement Utah was in the Vegas bowl to buy 6 tickets. Prices from $220 to $1000. Thanks Vegas Bowl.
Officer Doofy @D_Elliott92: I feel like the Vegas bowl let 75% of tickets go to BYU and 25% to Utah fans
Cody @CB_Ute: @Easter2412 @matthew_piper Vegas Bowl put tickets up for sale last week and it sold out before Utah got invited--hence the BYU home game.
TheJazzyUte @TheJazzyUte: LOOK at how many official tickets remain for the Vegas Bowl. Utah fans, if they want to go, will have to pay gouged up prices. Yipee!
Andrew McCullough @amccullough105: @Utah_Football @LasVegasBowl awesome that Byu has bought all the tickets and so ute fans get hosed. Good job Vegas bowl.
Saccenti said he holds some tickets over for heavy hitters interested in attending the game, but had none to dole out this time.
He has a good problem of overwhelming interest in his game, but it's still a problem.
"It's a great problem to have, that you're sold out," Saccenti said. "People want to get into the game. At the same time, you don't want anybody upset with the bowl. You want people to have a great experience. You want them to come back."
Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65
