UTC athletic director David BlackburnHosting a Football Championship Subdivision playoff game for the first time in University of Tennessee at Chattanooga history certainly qualifies as a milestone.
It does, however, come with a cost.
Tickets to Saturday afternoon’s round-of-16 game between UTC and Indiana State at Finley Stadium range from $35 for a skybox seat to $5 for students. Reserved seats are $30, while general-admission seats are $20 for adults and $10 for children.
“I think people are used to paying $50 or $60 for tickets to events and concerts,” UTC athletic director David Blackburn said Tuesday. “We’re in the playoffs for the first time in 30 years, and $20 is still a deal. It’s higher than our normal rate, but it’s also the playoffs and the second round, so it should be a little higher. It’s like a bowl game, and the better the bowl, the higher the price.
“We’ve had a few people express disappointment, but not many. By and large, they understand this is a more premium game than a regular-season or a first-round game.”
The NCAA requires a minimal bid of $30,000 to host a first-round FCS game and $40,000 to host a second-round contest. Due to the historic success of this year’s team — the only other FCS playoff appearance by the Mocs took place in 1984 — UTC was willing to fork over a little extra to make a home game possible.
Hence UTC’s guarantee of nearly $48,000.
“Our chancellor, Dr. (Steven) Angle, and I just felt like we had to get a game in Chattanooga,” Blackburn said. “We felt like the community needed it, even if we had to write a check to cover the guarantee. From a morale standpoint, I thought it was the right thing to do. Maybe it wasn’t business-wise, but sometimes you’ve got to go by your gut and what you think the city and campus needs.
“I think our people will show up and be thankful that we are here.”
Guarantees to the NCAA go toward paying traveling expenses for the visiting team. If a visiting team is more than 400 miles from its opponent, the NCAA allows it to fly to the destination, and each travel party member, according to Blackburn, receives a $130 per diem.
Blackburn said there is no precise attendance total that would serve as a break-even point for the university but that the guarantee was made with a crowd of 10,000 in mind. That was roughly UTC’s league-leading average for regular-season games.
Not every FCS school, however, reflects its attendance average once the playoffs arrive. Fordham averaged 5,034 fans during the regular season and had only 2,442 for last Saturday’s first-round victory over Sacred Heart, while Eastern Kentucky averaged 9,040 fans for home games and had just 1,941 in its loss to visiting Indiana State.
Paul Smith, Finley Stadium’s executive director, said there is no financial risk whatsoever for the Stadium Corp.
“Our traditional revenue streams of parking and concessions are intact for us, and it’s outside of the agreement with UTC and the NCAA,” Smith said. “There is no way this is anything but a bonus for us and for the city.”
Finley Stadium housed 13 FCS championship games from 1997 to 2009, and the community responded more times than not to those contests. The 2007 title matchup, which Appalachian State won over Delaware, had a slew of ASU and local supporters comprising a record crowd of 23,010.
Nobody is expecting those numbers Saturday, but will the crowd reach or surpass 10,000? If it exceeds the amount needed to repay the guarantee, additional revenue would be split to where the NCAA receives 90 percent and UTC 10 percent.
“Chattanoogans are creatures of habit, and football playoff games in December aren’t really part of our culture,” Smith said. “There are so many things that spring up this time of year and so many events around town that people have always done, and I’m worried that it may wind up being like the playoffs for the Lookouts. People aren’t used to watching baseball in September, and so those crowds were light.
“Or will it be like the Chattanooga FC where the crowds swell? We’ll just have to wait and see on Saturday.”
There is a good chance for rain Saturday, which could temper the attendance, but Blackburn is expecting not only a solid crowd but an excited one. After all, history will be made regardless of the outcome.
And there may be no price tag for that.
“At the end of the day, you’re in the playoffs, and you want home-field advantage,” Blackburn said. “You always want to make money, but this is more about our team and our school and our city. We want to win this game.
“We think we could have 12,000 or 13,000 or even 14,000, but who knows? It’s new for everybody. We haven’t done this in 30 years.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.