For the first time since Lloyd Carr was pacing the sidelines, Michigan football has a higher demand for season tickets than it can supply in the Big House.
According to athletic director Jim Hackett, it's been "roughly seven years" since the athletic department has needed to establish a waiting list for season tickets. The return of Jim Harbaugh has infused a ton of energy into the program, as we saw with the 60,000-person turnout for Saturday's spring game. Hackett also said, via MLive.com, that the school has sold out all 81 of its luxury boxes for the fall.
"We're getting close to figuring out (if all season tickets are sold out for 2015)," Hackett told MLive.com. "We're getting close to that line. And we'll find out if there aren't any more new renewals and then we can fulfill requests. But we have a demand list for requests right now that we haven't had (in a long time). We have thousands of people who want multiple (season) tickets.
"The season ticket prices, we worked really hard on that. We tried, deliberately, to make an opportunity for every fan that's priced in a certain way to reward loyalty. Loyalty matters. Every (luxury) box we had for sale is gone, there are no openings there. And we had some openings (before Harbaugh was hired). I remember getting informal comments from people after Jim was hired telling me they weren't going to mail a check in until (they saw who the next coach was)."
Hackett also confirmed that the school is trying to work out an opponent for a night game in Michigan Stadium and would not rule out Michigan State, on Oct. 17, as a possibility.
Honestly, the spike in season ticket sales was expected. Fans getting a tattoo of Jim Harbaugh's 1994 appearance on "Saved By The Bell" was not.
