By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – With 10 weeks to go before Old Dominion kicks off the 2022 football season, the University has sold 2,000 more season tickets than it did last season.
Season ticket sales passed the 9,306 last week, Athletic Director Dr. Wood Selig said. A year ago, ODU sold just 7,200 season tickets.
ODU's first season playing football under coach Ricky Rahne had girded fan optimism – last season the Monarchs won their last five regular-season games and went to their first bowl game since 2016.
ODU also dropped the unpopular ticket memberships, which fans had to purchase in order to have the right to buy some of the stadium's choicest seats. Eliminating ticket memberships reduced the prices of more than 80 percent of sideline seats.
The schedule is also much stronger. The Monarchs open at home against Virginia Tech on Sept. 2 and ODU plays its first season in the Sun Belt Conference, a step up from Conference USA.
The Monarchs host Sun Belt foes James Madison, Marshall, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern as well as Liberty in another non-conference game.
S.B. Ballard Stadium holds nearly 22,000 fans, but between complimentary tickets for players and their families and tickets set aside for students and visiting teams, ODU needs to sell about 14,600 season tickets to sell out the stadium. All season tickets are sideline seats with prices starting at $150.
Officials expect S.B. Ballard Stadium to be sold out for the Virginia Tech game without single-game tickets going on sale to the general public. The same likely will be true of the final home game of the season, against JMU on Nov. 12, which has been designated as the Oyster Bowl and the Military Appreciation Game.
Some chairback seats were held until early June for returning season ticket holders in case they wanted to purchase more tickets. Those tickets have now been released to the general public. That means there are limited seats available between the 40-yard lines.
ODU will begin a media campaign in late July and throughout August, and that's when many of the 5,000 or so remaining tickets will sell out.
"I've been pleased with sales," Selig said. "I think we're hitting what every school in the country is hitting right now, which is a lull. But from mid-July to kickoff, the phones are going to be burning up.
"I would want to pick now among the 5,000 sideline seats that we have remaining as opposed to waiting until late August and picking among what's left."
Selig said that 92 percent of last year's season ticket holders renewed their seats, which is a higher number than usual. He added that 774 individuals or groups have so far purchased 2,824 new tickets.
ODU upset Virginia Tech, 49-35, at old Foreman Field in 2018. The Sept. 2 game will be Tech's first return to Norfolk since. It marks the debut of first-year head coach Brent Pry, who coached at Penn State with Rahne, and will be televised national by ESPNU.
"The game is going to be electric," Selig said. "That's not a game I think any of our fans want to miss."
Minium: Football Season Ticket Sales Going Strong
