Best fans sellout season tickets – AGAIN – in midst of economic recession [Updated 12:45pm]

'09 Football Editor's Picks Fans NCS Football28

Shhhhh! I’ve got some secrets.

The NC State football program has had only one winning season in the last five years, when the Wolfpack posted unspectacular 7-5 record in the 2005 season that we mustered more than 24 points only once (when we scored 54 points on Eastern Kentucky in the second game of the year.) Shhhh!

The Wolfpack has not won an Atlantic Coast Conference Championship in THIRTY YEARS – a time period that has seen DUKE share a conference title and seen Virginia, one of the (previously) worst programs in college football, emerge to share two titles Shhhh! Additionally, Wake (another one of the worst football programs in NCAA history) won an ACC title a few years ago.

Don’t tell anyone…nobody would want to ruin the unfettered optimism of some of the best fans in the world!!

Today NC State announced the ninth consecutive sell-out of season tickets in Carter-Finley Stadium.

N.C. State football remains a hot ticket, even during an economic recession.

Season tickets for N.C. State games are sold out for the ninth straight year, according to an announcement today by Brian Kelly, the school’s assistant athletics director for ticket operations.

But a limited number of single-game tickets remain on sale. Tickets for the Murray State, Gardner-Webb and Duke games remain available. A few “Rivalry Packages,” which include seats for the Duke and North Carolina games for $93, also remain.

Athletics director Lee Fowler said N.C. State’s improvement under third-year coach Tom O’Brien has kept the team popular among fans.

“Even in a difficult economic climate, our fans continue to show how devoted they are to Wolfpack football and how excited they re about the coming season,” Fowler said. “I know it means a lot to Coach O’Brien and his team that they will again be playing in a packed Carter-Finley Stadium.”

The support that NC State fans continue to provide the overall athletics program, particularly the football program, is amazing and deserves significant praise.

Today’s announcement is timely – take a look at this interesting article from earlier in the week and observe how many times that NC State’s fans were praised by players from other schools in the conference as well as NC State’s Willie Young’s comment response to a question asking him to identify the best fans in the conference:

I don’t consider anyone fans outside of our own.

Random sampling of public praise for NC State Fans worth mentioning:

* ESPN Magazine: Carter-Finley’s student section ranked as one of nation’s 5 most spirited

* Caulton Tudor: NC State has most loyal fanbase in North Carolina

* Caulton Tudor: NC State’s fans are amongst the most patient and most loyal in all of college athletics

* CNN/Sports Illustrated: NC State is ‘that kind of place’

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'09 Football Editor's Picks Fans NCS Football

28 Responses to Best fans sellout season tickets – AGAIN – in midst of economic recession [Updated 12:45pm]

  1. mikeD 08/27/2009 at 12:29 PM #

    I saw that article yesterday. I loved Willie’s comment on most hostile fans. Sheer confidence! (or cockiness)

  2. Wufpacker 08/27/2009 at 1:21 PM #

    I’m surprised at the number who named BC’s fans as most hostile. Didn’t think there were enough of them to be seriously hostile. Seems it would be more annoyance than hostility.

    But, then again I’ve never been to BC. I guess despite not traveling well, maybe they make the most of the home games.

  3. Packman02 08/27/2009 at 1:38 PM #

    ^ Not sure I get the hostile / BC fans positive correlation either. For my money, Clemson fans are the most knowledgeable, intimidating and lively group in the conference … outside of our own, OF COURSE!

    ‘Course, I’ve never been to Virginia Tech but have heard it is a similar experience – loud and intimidating, but not in that trashy-Maryland sort of way.

    As for the season sellout – what did you guys expect? That’s what we do!

  4. waxhaw 08/27/2009 at 1:50 PM #

    I thought the same thing until I reread the article.

    He mentioned throwing things when he said hostile (think Eagles fans). My guess is he wasn’t trying to say they were the wildest, loudest or craziest just hostile as in they throw stuff at you and yell cuss words at your mother. That’s not exactly what I’d want our fans to be known for.

    We all know the BC fans are not the best fans as most people define it.

  5. choppack1 08/27/2009 at 2:06 PM #

    The sell-outs are something to be proud of. Hopefully, we’ll see pretty good results on the field. We finished the year winning our last 2 at home…I hope we see a nice streak starting a week from today.

  6. Alpha Wolf 08/27/2009 at 2:14 PM #

    In all seriousness, I am not at all surprised that State’s fans sold out CFS again. With an ever-growing alumni base that stays largely in-state, coupled with the fact that even if the teams have struggled, a day at the stadium is fun, one can see the why pretty easily.

    Now the question becomes: at what point do talks to expand again begin seriously? I would think that once the debt for the last couple of rounds is done, it is time to get the architects busy adding more seats to the building.

  7. DRW 08/27/2009 at 2:28 PM #

    Alpha, before adding more seats, I wish they would add more bathrooms and upgrade the east side.

  8. Trout 08/27/2009 at 2:43 PM #

    Nice Q&A article with TOB from the Technician:

    http://www.technicianonline.com/sports/q-a-with-tom-o-brien-1.1822206

  9. choppack1 08/27/2009 at 3:06 PM #

    Alpha – that’s an interesting thought. The one thing about expansion, it really, more than anything else – put seats where there was a hill and created a very conservative plan for end zone seats where there was previously none.

    I think the easy, seemless expansions are done. The next round of expansions will be a lot more challenging and some tough decisions.

  10. Trout 08/27/2009 at 3:25 PM #

    ^ The expansion was more of a comfort expansion – trading all the grass seats for permanent seats, plus adding the towers. Agree, next round will be more challenging. I would like to see CF seat 70k+. To me, still being in the high 50k area for seating does not put us in the bigtime discussion. 70k+ would put us only behind FSU and Clemson in the ACC (well, Miami’s Pro Player holds more, but they will never fill that stadium).

  11. VaWolf82 08/27/2009 at 3:55 PM #

    Why do you two think that the next round of expansion will be more challenging? Raise the scoreboard and turn the upper level into a horseshoe.

  12. Trout 08/27/2009 at 4:11 PM #

    More challenging was probably not the right word, because it was plenty challenging building both endzones. Now, any additonal expansion is not obvious in terms of location. Should we horseshoe the upper level, or should we add “wings” to expand the upper levels so that they curve towards the scoreboard on one end, and the Murphy Center on the other, thus keeping the stadium symmetrical. Do we add a suite level to the East side, or a 3rd level of mass seating (like Texas AM)?

    My biggest concern: can CF logistically handle 70k in terms of parking?

  13. choppack1 08/27/2009 at 4:42 PM #

    “Why do you two think that the next round of expansion will be more challenging?”

    Just looking at the two different solutions proposed by you and Trout…the last 2 “expansions” were no-brainers. Making matters worse – we have further expansion a little more difficult w/ the current expansion plans.

    VaWolf – the simplest expansion is as you outline it, but I think that only gets about 5k to 10K seats. That really doesn’t buy us a huge amount. It’s the next logical step- but where do you go after that?

    Trout – isn’t Miami getting a new stadium?

  14. Wufpacker 08/27/2009 at 5:17 PM #

    I’m with VaWolf, raise the scoreboard and make the upper deck a continuous horseshoe in the north endzone. Then in the south endzone extend the upper deck on both sides as far around as it can be (considering the Murphy Center). In fact, I can’t visualize in my head if its possible, but if it is, why not close in the upper deck in the south endzone as well? Having the Murphy Center in view is cool and all, but can you imagine the noise if both the upper and lower levels were closed in 360 degrees around?

  15. LRM 08/27/2009 at 6:45 PM #

    I’ll support expansion of C-F as soon as the WPC mows the Trinity Lot.

  16. goforit 08/27/2009 at 7:03 PM #

    “Alpha, before adding more seats, I wish they would add more bathrooms and upgrade the east side.”

    The quickest way to get an upgrade to the East Bathrooms is for everyone to walk over to the west side at halftime to take a leak.

  17. highstick 08/27/2009 at 9:17 PM #

    I support more seats when Lee leaves! No more of his fucilities!

  18. wolfpack95 08/27/2009 at 11:33 PM #

    Is it just me or is WRAL.com running more stories copied from InsideCarolina.com?

  19. blpack 08/28/2009 at 12:00 AM #

    Best fans in the ACC did it again! Thursday night is going to be great. I support expansion too. Maybe add a towers on the east side, renovate that side, and add some seats. We need to in terms of 65-70k. That is plenty for a NC team. 80k is not practical, imho.

  20. tjfoose1 08/28/2009 at 12:10 AM #

    Not sure where the best place to post this… but referencing your wolfpack wiki page, a good link to include would be (and forgive me if you’ve already included it somewhere)

    http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/acc/north_carolina_state/index.php

    It provides historical data for the Wolfpack (and all schools) going back to the 1892 ‘season’.

    Great site for looking up past records, opponents, championships, coaches, etc…

    For example, one click can get you our entire bowl history, each coaches career record at NC State, our overall record against every opponent ever played, season stat records, etc…

  21. BJD95 08/28/2009 at 9:37 AM #

    It’s fairly easy to get tickets in the secondary market for most games, right around face value. To me, that indicates that the venue is appropriately sized for the expected demand.

    Plus, I’m not at all convinced we will be worth a damn after TOB leaves, meaning that by the time any further stadium expansion is completed, it will be completely unnecessary.

  22. packalum44 08/28/2009 at 10:08 AM #

    We need a bigger stadium. Simply enclose the upper bowl on both sides and a Vaughn Tower II on the east side. Who cares it the Murphy Center is out of view. It would be a beautiful and nationally relevant stadium. That should add another 15,000 seats???

    Do it in a way that allows more expansion in the future. The Vaughn Tower will be old and outdated in 25 years. Tear it (them) down and add another section to each side.

  23. McPete 08/28/2009 at 10:31 AM #

    I think we’d need to wait till there was a waiting list for season tickets before planning another expansion. I’ve been getting a ton of emails from the wolfpack club all summer trying to sell me mini plans, two game plans, etc. I actually bit on the mini season ticket plan, but i got the pack plan with gardner webb, pitt, maryland, and unc. My plan was then to find tix to this South Carolina game, but it’s tough to find anything for under $100 per ticket. On craigslist, there are ten people looking for every one person selling. not exactly a buyers market. if it was like this for even half of our conference games, i’d say expansion. when lack of supply is making your competitors rich, time to do something about it.

  24. packpowerfan 08/28/2009 at 10:37 AM #

    ^
    I agree. Though we’ve had the most advanced facilities in recent years, Oklahoma St. has added a MASSIVE rehabilitation and training center that will par them up with us. Most schools are on the fast track to catch up, even at the (light) blue school down the road. Vaughn Towers are really nice, especially if you’ve ever been in them, but I think capping the stadium at 75-85k would be an awesome achievement. Furthermore, after completing all the seating expansion, we could add all the technological stuff to it. Thus, once those luxuries were out of date, we could just replace and update them.

  25. Alpha Wolf 08/28/2009 at 11:18 AM #

    ^ Oklahoma State has T. Boone Pickens funding their expansion. With all due respect to the Murphy family and the rest, not even Jim Goodnight can match Pickens for his money.

    As for expanding CFS, wrapping a deck around the top over the NEZ would seem to be the most logical route…but I don’t know if we will see it in our lifetime.

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