By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion football season tickets continue to sell at a brisk pace.
It's only been a month since season tickets went on sale, and only a week or so since most current season ticket holders received their renewal forms, and yet ODU has sold nearly 5,000 season tickets, including 1,500 to new ticket holders.
At this rate, ODU will soon eclipse the total number of tickets sold last year. The goal is to sell the stadium out, which means selling about 14,500. Although S.B. Ballard seats nearly 22,000, thousands of tickets are required to be set aside for students, visiting teams and families of players.
All of the premium seats at S.B. Ballard Stadium, including suites, the Priority Automotive Club and loge seats, are now spoken for.
The deadline for renewing season tickets is May 1. ODU fans must do so by then to guarantee they can keep their seats, or upgrade to better seats.
In all, the seats now sold will generate more than $1.3 million in ticket revenue, not including donations made to join the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation.
There are several factors leading to the increase in ticket sales:
1. ODU plays its best home schedule. The Monarchs open at home against Virginia Tech and also host Liberty. And because ODU is joining the Sun Belt Conference, the conference schedule will be much more attractive: James Madison, Marshall, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern.
2. The program is headed in the right direction under coach Ricky Rahne. The Monarchs won their last five games last season to finish 6-6 and earn their first bowl game since 2016. Rahne returns 19 starters and has a highly-rated slate of recruits coming in this fall.
3. Athletic Director Wood Selig and other senior staff decided to eliminate seat memberships, which required a minimum payment in order to have the right to purchase tickets. Removing the seat memberships has reduced the overall cost of tickets for 80 percent of the seats in the stadium. Sideline seats are available for $150 per game. The lowest-priced single-game ticket for the Virginia Tech game from a prominent secondary ticket market site is more than $120.
Dr. Jason Chandler, associate athletic director for revenue generation, said he expects ticket renewals to roll in during April as the deadline looms.
"The good news is that a lot of our fans who are renewing their seats are purchasing more seats," he said.
Selig has said no general admission tickets will go on sale for the Virginia Tech game, that all tickets will be allocated to season-ticket holders. JMU, which is ODU's final home game, may also sell out before tickets go on sale.
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Fans Get First look today at ODU quarterbacks
Old Dominion fans will get their first peak at the Monarch football offense under new offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude during today's Priority Charity Bowl ODU Spring Football game.
But if you're looking for big changes, you won't see any. He and Rahne essentially adhere to the same offensive philosophy.
"We want to be fast-paced with a good mix" of plays, Patenaude said. "We want to be physical.
"We want to take some shots down the field and win some one-on-one matchups. When you're up, we're going to try to control the ball.
"It's really a matter of trying to take advantage of what the other team is giving you."
And while most fan interest is focused on the competition to see who will start at quarterback, none of the four quarterbacks in contention has done enough to separate from the others.
Today's 2 p.m. scrimmage game marks the final day of ODU's 15 days of spring practice. Patenaude, who came to ODU from Georgia Tech, said a call on who starts won't be made until fall practice in August.
Redshirt sophomore Hayden Wolff has been running with the first team, but Patenaude said that's largely because he's the returning starter. Wolff won't play in today's spring game after having undergone minor surgery earlier this week.
The other competitors are D.J. Mack Jr., the Norfolk native who transferred from UCF and who started six games last season; Brendon Clark, a Richmond native and former 4-star recruit and a sophomore transfer from Notre Dame; and Reese Poffenbarger, a redshirt freshman from Middletown, Maryland.
Pautenaude said he believes that Wolff and Mack have improved over last season but that ODU could win with any of the four.
"If you look at the numbers, it's almost dead even the number of reps" they've all had, Patenaude said. "You're just trying to figure out what their skill sets are at this point.
"What are they really, really good at, and at the end of the day, who gives us the best opportunity to win?
"It's not a question of 'do we have a good quarterback?' Yes, we do. It's a question of who puts us in the best position when we open against Virginia Tech."
Patenaude on Wolff: "Hayden is such a student of the game. He is always prepared, he's always on point. He can check us out of things.
"They call him a pocket guy, but he is really a good athlete. He moves around well. He needs to be more comfortable tucking the ball and taking off and he will get there.
"Nothing is going to surprise Hayden. He's super smart and studies the game more than anyone I've been around."
Patenaude on Mack: "The thing I love about D.J. is from an athletic standpoint, he can move around, he can do a lot of different things. He can run the quarterback run game, he can break the pocket. He can do all of the out of the pocket things.
"And he's played a lot of football.
"One time, when we were watching tape of Central Florida at Temple, we notice he's on the scoreboard as a young guy trying to hype up the crowd. So, we pull that clip out and we showed it to him. We said, 'Hey, we've got a special guest in practice.'
"He wanted to know how we found it. He was maybe 19 years old."
Patenaude on Clark, who is coming off knee surgery: "This is really his first true spring practice because he got banged up and lost a season. He's really just coming back and getting into form.
"The thing I'm super impressed about him is that he's very smart and you can tell he's been well schooled. He's also very cool. He just hangs in the pocket and moves around and he has got some savvy to him.
"You can tell he's an older guy. Things don't faze him. He's seen all the looks from defense he played against at Notre Dame, where they give you 20 different looks. He's played a lot of ball. He just hasn't had the amount of reps in this offense to totally feel comfortable yet."
Patenaude on Poffenbarger: "I wouldn't count Reese out by any stretch of the imagination. He has an electric arm and he's a very good athlete.
"He's absolutely in the mix. He's really played well this spring. And he's got a great arm."
Women's Soccer Will "Stand With Ukraine"
Saturday offers fans more than just a chance to take in football. There will be two other athletic events going on about the same time, including one with a very special message.
At 1 p.m., the ODU women's soccer team holds an exhibition against William & Mary at the ODU Soccer Stadium.
Coach Angie Hind said the Monarchs will show their support for Yuliia Khrystiuk, a sophomore forward from Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Russia invaded the Ukraine in February and the war there has been bloody and destroyed much of the country's infrastructure.
"As a team we are trying to find ways to support her and the team really wanted to do something to show this both to her but also within the community, and to share with Yuliia's family and friends at home," Hind said.
Both ODU and William & Mary will warm up wearing "Stand with Ukraine" t-shirts.
"That was a very nice gesture by William and Mary," Hind said.
If you want to donate medical supplies that will be delivered to Ukraine, ODU students will be collecting them at the game.
The ODU baseball team also hosts UTSA at 3 p.m. That game should be in about the third inning when the football scrimmage game ends.
ODU won its fourth game in a row when the Monarchs shut down UTSA, 11-0, Friday night.
Minium: In Just One Month, ODU has Sold Nearly 5,000 Football Season Tickets
