Cost of football tickets rises $2 per game

IOWA CITY -- The cost for an Iowa football ticket rose $2 per game, the UI athletics department announced Thursday.

The increase raises the cost of a general public season ticket for the seven home games of the 2012 UI football team to $388 each. UI faculty and staff moved to $318 each. Student tickets remain at $175.

"Fortunately, we have a great fan base," UI athletics director Gary Barta said Thursday. "Every year we have to sit down and figure out how we make sure we bring in more revenue or at least as much revenue as our expenditures. . . . When you look at our schedule coming up this year and the national prices, this was the year we decided we needed to increase by $2."

UI students will have the choice of purchasing a seven-game season ticket at $175 or a six-game season ticket at $150.

The 6-game season ticket won't include a ticket the Nebraska game scheduled for Friday, Nov. 23 – the day after Thanksgiving when classes at the UI are not in session.

The student tickets for the Nebraska game that come available will be sold for $70 and marked "standing room only." UI students who don't have the seven-game ticket package will get first crack at the extras. After that, the UI will take orders for additional Nebraska tickets from season-ticket holders and will determine the distribution between season-ticket holders and Hawkeye Sports Properties after the amount of tickets available is establish.

Basically, this is Iowa's attempt at keeping Kinnick as much black and gold as possible.

Iowa's high-price games this season are $70 for Iowa State and Nebraska. Minnesota, Purdue and Penn State are $65 apiece. UNI is $60 and Central Michigan is $55.

Fans who bought season tickets in 2011 will receive renewal information from the UI Athletics Ticket Office via e-mail later this month. Renewal process will begin in early March.

If available, single-game ticket sales will begin late June or early July.

Season-ticket holders also will have first opportunity to buy tickets for Iowa's game against Northern Illinois at Soldier Field (61,500 capacity). Barta guessed late spring or early summer for general public tickets to go on sale for that game.

Soldier Field controls the tickets for the game, which is an NIU home game. Iowa and NIU did this in 2007 (a 16-3 Iowa victory). The announced crowd was 61,500, which then was the largest crowd in NIU and the Mid-American Conference history.

Season-ticket holders also will have the first opportunity to purchase away game tickets.

If available, single game tickets will be sold at the following prices:

Iowa State (Sept. 8 ) $70

Northern Iowa (Sept. 15) $60

Central Michigan (Sept. 22) $55

Minnesota (Sept. 29) $65

Penn State (Oct. 20) $65

Purdue (Nov. 10) $65

Nebraska (Nov. 23) $70