Virgina Tech now asking fans or anyone to buy "Proxy Tickets"
The Hokies have only sold 9337 of their 17500 Sugar Bowl ticket allotment and are now asking(begging) their fans to buy proxy tickets for $120 each that will then be donated to New Orleans area charities and military personnel.
Press release:
BLACKSBURG - The Virginia Tech Athletics Department announced today that it has sold 9,337 of its 17,500 tickets to the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl. Over the years, Virginia Tech has earned the reputation of being a football program that enjoys a strong following to bowl games. In order to maintain that recognition, the Athletics Department is asking Hokie fans that cannot make this year’s Allstate Sugar Bowl to consider purchasing proxy tickets. Tech Director of Athletics Jim Weaver, head football coach Frank Beamer, and the entire football coaching staff, will each be purchasing a pair of proxy tickets in order to support this initiative.
All proxy tickets will be distributed to military and charitable organizations in the greater New Orleans area. To order your proxy tickets, please log on towww.hokietickets.com or call the Athletics Ticket Office at (540) 231-6731 or 1-800 VA TECH4 (828-3244).
For updates on Virginia Tech football, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Football)
HT- Stewart Mandel via Sam Webb's twitter.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:15 PM ^
Charity + tax writeoffs + less maize and blue in the stadium = great idea from VT
December 12th, 2011 at 1:52 PM ^
Do we know how many tickets we have sold?
December 13th, 2011 at 12:03 AM ^
were we offered the same amount as VT?
December 12th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^
Are they doing this to donate the tickets and if so, are they getting the tax benefits of it, or are they essentially just burning money?
December 12th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^
I wonder if the Sugar Bowl Commitee is regretting not taking KSU or Boise
December 12th, 2011 at 1:19 PM ^
That is why VT is begging their fans to do this. So they dont make the BCS/Sugar Bowl people look worse.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:51 PM ^
Doesn't this make VT look worse than anyone else? Yeah, the BCS and Sugar Bowl are going to take some flack, and they already have, but this could hurt VT in the future as far as "hey they don't travel that well" or "they don't travel as well as they once did." It could mean in the future that they don't get picked over other deserving teams.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:53 PM ^
It kind of depends on if the story gets out, but given the amount of heat the Sugar Bowl and VT has already taken on this, I suspect this story will have legs and word will get out.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:58 PM ^
Rovell has been skewering both the Sugar Bowl and VT ever since the bowl was announced. He's probably not main stream, but I think enough people who follow sports know about him to have caught a gist of the sentiments he's been echoing. There have been a bunch of other people critical of VT's selection too.
I guess we'll see how this plays out, but it definitely doesn't look good for VT (with tickets sales struggling) and as a result, the Sugar Bowl will catch heat as well.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:32 PM ^
I haven't heard a thing. Have you?
December 12th, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^
Even with 75% of the stadium in orange and purple, the Sugar Bowl committee would still look horrible for booking a team that got housed twice and played no one. This just makes it sweeter, especially for us Michigan fans living in Virginia who detest Hokie fans.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:19 PM ^
Probably. And I'm surprised by this. Usually VT travels really well.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:49 PM ^
I live in the heart of "Hokie country" and the fans are a real buzz kill this year. They all seem to be resigned to having their assess handed to them. I've been hoping that we could meet them in a bowl for years... Kind of a let down now with all of these wet towel Hokie fans.
December 12th, 2011 at 4:57 PM ^
I've read in numerous places and seen it on this board that "VA Tech travels well." No they don't.
1) Here's info from last year's Orange Bowl:
- http://www.gobblercountry.com/2010/12/14/1877209/2011-orange-bowl-virgi…
Key fact: For that game, as of Dec 14 2010, VA Tech had only sold 6,500 tickets. So they are actually doing BETTER this year.
2) If you're every on EDSBS, you'll sometime see a picture of a 1/3 full ACC championship game featuring VA Tech and BC (link here). While Jacksonville is a poor location for an ACC championship game, and ticket sales have been much betterr for VA Tech now that it's in Charlotte, going from VA to North Carolina doesn't prove you "travel well."
In short, this is reason # 383 that the bowls are a travesty. Even when they cravenly try to set up a matchup based (supposedly) on ticket sales, they screw that up. This game should have KSU or Baylor (for ticket sales) or Boise (for TV ratings) if that was how they were going to make the matchup.
December 12th, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^
Michigan and Denard vs. Baylor and RG3 would have been sick - game wise, ratings wise, and attendence wise. The Sugar Bowl blew that one.
BTW, who are the 25 schmucks that bought upper deck seats in the picture?
December 13th, 2011 at 11:09 AM ^
That's not proof that Tech doesn't travel. I believe they sold out their Orange Bowl allotment that year. That's proof that no fanbase will travel twice. Why take vacation days to go to Florida when you're saving up money and time off for the bowl trip - also to Florida?
December 12th, 2011 at 1:23 PM ^
When Denard goes 200/200 in the first three quarters and Devin is leading the team on drives early in the fourth they might regret it more. MGoBlog will be tuned in to the glorious end, though, so they've got that going for them.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:48 PM ^
Once I realized Michigan was going to go to a BCS bowl game, I said to myself, there is not one outcome that I would be dissappointed with. This belief was based on the fact that the Sugar Bowl taking Virginia Tech was not even remotely in the equation. People like to watch Michigan, people are drawn to Denard. This was a very difficult one for the Sugar Bowl to screw up but they managed to do just that. V Tech is stale, their own fans even think so. Blacksburg crowds are not what they used to be, they are post James Madison (their version of the Horror), Beamer simply is not going to be around for long. Boise, K State, Baylor, West Virginia for god sake. Just not the Hokies, not this year. Going to a BCS game is cool. Playing V Tech in the Sugar Bowl this year, sorry, but not very cool.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:54 PM ^
I bet the Sugar Bowl is kicking itself for not taking Baylor. You have RG3 who just won the Heisman playing in the Alamo Bowl against Washington? You could have given him a great stage? They really messed up.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:19 PM ^
Don't want to pay to go to a football game? That's great, because you now have the exciting oppurtunity to pay to NOT go to a football game!
December 12th, 2011 at 1:54 PM ^
If you'd gotten your $75 to go the Big Ten Championship game, you'd have more than half the money you need to not attend the Sugar Bowl!
December 12th, 2011 at 1:21 PM ^
Because that got lots of publicity.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:23 PM ^
"We don't think its worth it to pay to go to your bowl game...so instead we'll pay more money for someone else to go"
does not compute.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^
going to be alot of Maize in NO
December 12th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^
I'll be there. Good to know we might own the fanbase cause in the Rose Bowl's we sure are outnumbered!
December 12th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^
December 12th, 2011 at 1:42 PM ^
Not yet -- at least as of this morning you could still buy tickets on mgoblue.com.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:31 PM ^
How is it just not the regular cost of the ticket? So going to the game is cheaper than paying for someone else to go? How much would it cost to have no one go....oh God i've gone cross eyed lol
December 12th, 2011 at 1:52 PM ^
and Im not saying whether it would be due to the charities involved or perhaps invoked by the school, but I'd be willing to bet a dollar there is at least one "administrative fee" in there somewhere.
Rule #1 when there is a charity involved- find out where the money goes before you donate. Sadly, there are lots of entities in the world operating as "charities" that are anything but. Please don't misunderstand me- there are many wonderful charities as well- but caveat emptor and all that...
December 12th, 2011 at 2:16 PM ^
Some of the biggest are also some of the worst culprits as far as where the donations go or don't i.e. Susan Komen.
Guidestar.org is a great independent resource to do said homework prior to making any conntribution.
December 12th, 2011 at 4:53 PM ^
If there were an active service member in the area that could go, I'd be willing to pay their way. But I would have to know that the $125 I'm spending is going for that soldier's ticket and not just 1/2 or 1/4 of it. I'd even spend $130 to cover a reasonable $5 administrative cost.
I would really love to personally go to this game. But I have too much crap going on over the New Years to make it happen.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:32 PM ^
If this were going to a fed-certified charity, I would donate some tix (and if it were through the Michigan AD).
I can't goto the Sugar Bowl, but would not mind some tax writeoffs for 2011.
So if any Mgobloggers are connected to the AD...
December 12th, 2011 at 1:32 PM ^
At $120 a pop and more than 8,000 tickets to sell, I'm guessing there isn't enough charity money left this time of year to get them all sold. I mean, you might get a few dozen people to pony up 1-2 thousand dollars and a few hundred people to by one or two tickets, but unless someone with deep pockets steps up, I'm guessing even with this they are going to have a lot of unsold tickets.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:40 PM ^
these tickets will be able to be a tax deduction. I havent read that any where.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:43 PM ^
Yeah I thought the tix would have to be to a registered charity with a valid tax id without any benefit to the donor to get a tax deduction as a charitable donation.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:49 PM ^
that VT would treat it as a tax-deductible contribution to VT, which would then use the money as it sees fit.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:14 PM ^
It's for a sporting event though, there would be limitations on how much could be deductible as it can be argued the ticket includes a substantial amount of personal enjoyment, regardless whether or not they actually attended the game
December 12th, 2011 at 1:35 PM ^
Our fans have always traveled well. But this year might be the first time in I don't when that we might actually outnumber our opponent's fans in a bowl game. It's been a long, long, time.
December 12th, 2011 at 4:27 PM ^
We've traveled okay for the bigger bowls (though not to the extent of say, Wisconsin), but in the smaller bowls our turnouts have often been a little spotty. We do consistently draw good TV ratings.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:41 PM ^
It would be awesome to have half of VTs section full of Michigan fans.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:00 PM ^
We have to sell our own seats first and I don't think DB needs to buy VT's seats when Michigan fans can buy cheaper seats on StubHub and other sites of that nature for cheaper than face. Doing that would probably be a loss to the AD and a loss to the fans.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:30 PM ^
Also its the 600 level seats that are cheap. Most of the lower level seats are going to run you at least 130 plus service fees on stubhub right now. Im assuming VTs tickets are lowers.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:49 PM ^
The price of tickets on stubhub (for the cheap seats anyway) continue to drop--now as low as $55. With more news like this, they might drop even more.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:02 PM ^
I'm gonna keep an eye on those prices. If they drop even more before game day, and if I can find reasonable airfare, I might have to pull the trigger.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:56 PM ^
There are 6,950 seats left on StubHub, so a secondary market price drop is a realistic possibility.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:50 PM ^
get a charity at least a pair of proxy tickets? i can't believe that every seat in that huge place, even the shittiest ones are more than $60.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:00 PM ^
ECU did this a few years back when they were invited to the Hawaii bowl. That made sense because A) it was ECU and B) Flights to Hawaii are super expensive, especially last minute. This doesn't make sense.
Everyone says M travels well, but do we? We were passed over in 2005 for the Outback Bowl (Iowa) and couldn't sell out the Alamo Bowl. We were definitely outnumbered against Texas in the 2005 Rose Bowl and USC (duh, home game) in 2007. Those are the only 3 I've been to. #smallsamplesize
The higher cost may be to provide a VT shirt to the recipient of the tickets.
December 12th, 2011 at 6:42 PM ^
I live in CA and this was my first bowl game and wow was I shocked at how little support we had at that game. Granted USC is only a hour from the Rose Bowl but it was 90% sc fans. Plus I had the pleasure of all those fucks talking shit after the game