Tickets are still available to the public for Saturday’s Ohio State football game against the University of Colorado, according to a Thursday athletic department press release.
OSU football spokesman Jerry Emig said Thursday that there are approximately 1,000 tickets still available to the public due to Colorado returning unsold tickets.
As of approximately 2:30 p.m. Thursday, A-deck seats were still available for Saturday’s game.
Brett Scarbrough of the OSU athletic ticket office said in an email that it depends on OSU’s opponent, but “it is not uncommon” for a visiting team’s unsold tickets to be released to the public the week of a game.
The release regarding the unsold tickets came less than two hours after a Thursday announcement by first-year head football coach Luke Fickell that freshman Braxton Miller will make his first start at quarterback Saturday.
Fourth-year in biology Miguel Perez said he thinks the announcement was issued for the purpose of selling more tickets.
“I think based on what happened to coach Tressel and Terrelle Pryor and our chances of losing this year, people became less interested in going,” Perez said. “Myself, I wanted Braxton Miller to be the starting quarterback this year, so I’m more excited to go to the games.”
Perez said he was surprised to hear that tickets were still available.
“I’ve always heard the past couple years that they’ve sold out for home games,” Perez said. “So, it was pretty surprising.”
According to Emig, unsold tickets were released three times during the 2010 season, for the Buckeyes’ games against Ohio University, Eastern Michigan University and Indiana University on Sept. 18, Sept. 25 and Oct. 9, respectively.
But Justin Lumbard, a second-year in mechanical engineering, said ticket sales might have been harmed by the NCAA investigation of the football program.
“I think it’s largely because of Jim Tressel being gone,” Lumbard said. “I think a lot of people followed him and looked up to him… he let people down.”
OSU is set to kick off against Colorado at 3:30 p.m. at Ohio Stadium. Tickets to the game can be purchased in-person at the Schottenstein Center box office.
