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For the first time in the history of the program, all season tickets for the UCF Knights’ 2019 football season are sold out.
UCF A.D. Danny White broke the news today via Twitter:
We did it #KnightNation!!! We are SOLD OUT of @UCF_Football season tickets for 2019!!
— Danny White (@UCFDannyWhite) August 12, 2019
The only single-game tickets left will be from visiting-team returns. #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/reP5Uflm7X
All 28,000 seats at the Bounce House are bought and paid for through the season. Pretty remarkable what a 25-game winning streak will do for you.
Word is from Pat Clarke that UCF is now starting a season ticket waiting list.
UCF announces that it has sold out football season ticket allotment for 2019 home games. School is creating season ticket waiting list, and now contemplating stadium expansion.
— Pat Clarke (@PatClarke39) August 12, 2019
Now, there are a couple of things we have to specify here:
Spectrum Stadium seats 44,206. The number of seats allotted for season ticket is 28,000. The rest is allotted for single-game sales, student tickets and opponents’ fans.
This was clearly one of White’s main goals when he got to UCF, since it boosts the program’s prestige, but also - and more importantly - its revenue. You don’t need a degree in economics to know that when demand out-strips supply, prices go up.
Whether each game is sold out is another story. As you can see from the last two seasons, it’s been above 90% since Black Friday 2017:
UCF Home Attendance since 2017
| Date | Opponent | Attendance | % Sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Opponent | Attendance | % Sold |
| 8/31/2017 | FIU | 38063 | 86.1% |
| 9/30/2017 | Memphis | 34022 | 77.0% |
| 10/14/2017 | ECU | 40287 | 91.1% |
| 10/28/2017 | Austin Peay | 27606 | 62.4% |
| 11/11/2017 | UConn | 29384 | 66.5% |
| 11/24/2017 | South Florida | 47129 | 106.6% |
| 12/2/2017 | Memphis (AACCG) | 41433 | 93.7% |
| 9/8/2017 | SC State | 43269 | 97.9% |
| 9/21/2018 | FAU | 44257 | 100.1% |
| 9/29/2018 | Pittsburgh | 44904 | 101.6% |
| 10/6/2018 | SMU | 40856 | 92.4% |
| 11/1/2018 | Temple | 41153 | 93.1% |
| 11/10/2018 | Navy | 44738 | 101.2% |
| 11/17/2018 | Cincinnati | 47795 | 108.1% |
| 12/1/2018 | Memphis | 45176 | 102.2% |
Detractors will whine about technicalities and point to Nebraska’s NCAA record 360+ game sellout streak (a monumental achievement in itself), but the bottom line is UCF Athletics is now maximizing its revenue on the balance sheet, and that’s good news for UCF.
What that bodes for the future is anybody’s guess.