How Many Tickets Has GIA Sold Per Year?

Since its renovation at the turn of the millennium, Oklahoma State’s attendance in Gallagher-Iba Arena has been a point of interest. It became a point of contention in recent years as the Travis Ford Experience took a nosedive. So it was interesting to me when Jenni Carlson wrote about Oklahoma State’s current season ticket situation.

She noted in an article for The Oklahoman that OSU has sold 4,685 season tickets thus far (my parents among them, by the way — shoutout to my parents).  That’s up from last year, but it is eons away from yesteryear.

Here is a look at the average number of tickets sold per game since the new GIA was opened up. For the sake of comparison to Ford’s last season, Carlson noted that only 4,000 season tickets (not including students) were sold in 2016 so you can see 1,800 tickets per game were either purchased as singles or counted as a portion of the student tickets.

This number will certainly go up from last year’s 5,857 based on the increase already in season tickets alone, but will it reach 2015 levels? I’m dubious.

Think about the ramifications here. The cheapest season ticket you can purchase on okstate.com right now (including the donation you have to make to secure your seat) is $12 per game. The most expensive is $240. Let’s be insanely conservative and say the average is $25.

So if you’re selling out all 17 games, you’re netting about $6 million (17*$25*13,611). If you’re at where Oklahoma State was at last year, you’re at $2.5 million. That’s a lot of cashflow Underwood has the opportunity to make up per year.

It’s going to take time, though. I don’t think any amount of Underwood going to students’ classes, preaching about being everyday guys or handing out jerseys to super fans will sell tickets.

Winning sells tickets. Winning early and often and in March.