Lagging Gamecock season ticket sales prompts USC to admit more students Saturday

The University of South Carolina is offering 1,100 additional student tickets for Saturday’s game against Tennessee, officials said Wednesday.

That nearly doubles the amount of student tickets that were originally available, 1,300, for the Gamecocks’ home opener against the No. 15 ranked Vols.

The additional Gamecocks football tickets will not increase the coronavirus-limited capacity of the stadium, and are being offered because season ticket demand has declined, said USC spokesman Larry Thomas.

“The capacity hasn’t changed, we just have additional tickets available because, (among) the season ticket holders, there isn’t demand,” Thomas said.

Thomas said other universities are facing a similar lack of demand in season tickets. The school had just more than 1,000 single game tickets available for Saturday as of Wednesday afternoon.

Heading into the season, USC was limiting capacity to Williams Brice — which holds up to 77,559 because of stadium renovations — to 20,000, according to a previous article from The State.

“In this case, students benefit,” Thomas said.

The school had made around 15,000 season tickets available to fans, with the other 5,000 in capacity allowing for opposing fans, students, band members and others in the stadium.

Season tickets had been offered in two packages, one with the Missouri and Auburn games, the other with Tennessee, Texas A&M and Georgia.

South Carolina executive associate AD/CCO Charles Bloom told The State that USC is not alone in that situation as lot of other schools are facing softer demand. Factors in that seem to be health concerns and scaling back of game day features such as the band, Gamecock Walk and less tailgating.

He noted the school always gives students more tickets when the opportunity and demand is there.

Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner told the school’s board the department’s revenue was projected to be $58 million less than originally thought at only $70 million this fiscal year, in part because of a drastic drop in tickets sales because of the reduced capacity.

South Carolina’s season kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on the SEC Network.

This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 11:20 AM.