It is always nice when numbers support what everyone innately knows to be true.
In 2004, NC State struggled on the gridiron with a 5-6 overall record. During the disappointing year, NC State fans proved the level of their amazing support by LEADING THE COUNTRY in football attendance as a percentage of capacity! The numbers are in for last season, and the Wolfpack still ranks in the country’s Top 5 you can only put as many fans in the stands as can buy tickets. (Relatedly…I LOVE going back and looking at related entries like this one from last year. Give it a look!)
2005: #5 with 103% at 52,925
2004: #1 with 109% at 56,200
2003: #5 with 103% at 53,274
2002: #23 with 96% at 49,477
2001: #24 with 96% at 49,254
2000: #34 with 91% at 46,787
NC State’s season ticket commitments for this season currently stand around 40,000. Almost every ticket requires an additional financial commitment through the need of Lifetime Rights that are required simply to be able to buy a season ticket. By contrast, our neighbors over in Chapel Hill are touting that “excitement is back” with Carolina football whose season ticket sales are “somewhere between 29,000 and 30,000.”
Football excitement is back at North Carolina following noticeable on the field improvement, key staff hires and retainment, and subsequent recruiting classes of national notoriety. And though season ticket sales are going at about the same pace as last season, UNC officials expect individual sales to increase with an extended home slate in 2006.
“I think we’re probably going to end up somewhere between 29,000 and 30,000 [season] tickets sold,� said Director of Ticket Operations Clint Gwaltney, a former Tar Heels’ kicker and the school’s seventh all-time leading scorer. “I think there is a lot of excitement. Our sales are still on about as steady of a pace as they were last year.�