ahunte1 wrote:
Hey Zags,
What is the ticket situation for Gonzaga? Is the gym sold out with season tickets? Waiting lists? Pricing?
First ... it wasn't always this way. GU changed from NAIA to D1 in 1959. When I was in school, we played in the Big Sky Conference ... at Kennedy Pavilion (later deemed "The Kennel"). In 1980 we joined the West Coast Conference ... and it wasn't easy as one of the requirements was that home games were to be played in the Spokane Coliseum (now rebuilt as the Spokane Arena ... 1.5 miles from campus). A few years into WCC league play our AD convinced the WCC that we could play our home games on campus ... in the Kennel by saying it seated 4,000 (it only seated 2,516 ... I know ... I counted them by walking the gym once). After back to back to back Sweet 16's (and beyond) 1999-2001 (the start of this run of consecutive NCAA dances) plans were made for a new gym ... right next (and connected to) the old one. It seats 6,000 ... 1,200 of which go to students. Demand for tickets is high ... almost entirely go to Season Ticket holders who are also donors (ie members of the Bulldog Club). Here are a couple of short videoclips of K2 (Kennel 2). The first (University of Washington game) was taken 1 row behind my seats (I live 300 miles away and share a pair of seats with another Seattle buddy).
Edited to add: When the Bulldog Club membership and tickets are added up ... it's probably between $80 and $100 a ticket. Demand certainly exceeds supply ... as on the open market you can easily triple that. And that's one of the problems ... as many business folks have seats to be "there" and many Zags/Zag fans can't get in. Over Christmas break the student section gets sold ... but without the students the atmosphere certainly isn't the same. Zag fans can go to games at the University of Portland quite easily (350 miles away) ... and the "Battle in Seattle" (300 miles away) will return with the new NHL arena. This is a "neutral/neutral" series played off campus ... i.e UConn the return game was played in the Boston Garden (or modern version of it) .. the Illini return was played at the United Center in Chicago ... Arizona was played at the Phoenix Suns place ... Kansas State was played in Wichita ...
Also the WCC tourney (Las Vegas) is where many non-season ticket holders see the Zags. Probably 6,500 of the 8,500 seats are sold to Zag fans. Sorry for the long, rambling response (pun intented) to your simple question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9NYpqgmsTEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJbOCbiQSI