You would think that after two straight bowl appearances the popularity of Vanderbilt football would be higher than ever before, and it might be. However, if it is, it's not helping sell tickets to Vanderbilt games.
According to The Tennessean, season ticket sales for Vanderbilt home games in 2013 are actually lower than they were in 2012. Last year the school sold about 18,500 season tickets, and so far only 16,200 season tickets have been sold for the 2013 season.
Coach James Franklin isn't happy about it, though he's confident things will change.
“It’s going to get up to where it was last year,” Franklin told The Tennessean. “I would have thought we would have been sold out by now. We’ve still got some time to do it.
“I really don’t want to hear about the excuses about we’re in a city and we have other things to compete with. I don’t want to hear about nationally how the trend is that people are struggling to get people to go to games, because that’s not the fact in the SEC, and we’re in the SEC. So I think the excuses are over and it’s time for us to get out and support our team.”
Now, with 10 days remaining before Vanderbilt's season opener at home against Ole Miss, it's entirely possible the school can sell 2,300 more season tickets. Also, it's important to point out that while Vanderbilt's average attendance of 37,860 was the lowest in the SEC, it was also a 15% increase from the 2011 season. Which was the largest increase of any school in the conference.
Still, while another 15% increase might be too much to ask in 2013, you wouldn't think sales would be down following the best season in school history (since joining the SEC, anyway).
