Irish eyes will be smiling at Iowa State’s support for its August football game in Dublin

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Iowa State has sold more than 10,000 tickets for its season-opening game against Kansas State Aug. 23 in Dublin, Ireland.

That’s not loading up a car and driving to Memphis for a Liberty Bowl. We’re talking a bigger commitment, financially, logistically and time-wise.

Tuesday, the Cyclone Tailgate Tour reached Veterans Memorial Coliseum for its annual Cedar Rapids stop. There, athletics director Jamie Pollard elaborated on ISU fans’ enthusiasm for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.

“I didn't go into it knowing what to expect,” Pollard said. “Ten thousand would be a really good number that we'd get for a decent bowl game. But this is different. It's not a small endeavor.

“The company that's doing it said if both K- State and Iowa State could each do 10,000, that would be a really good mark. They said if you guys do that, we’ll sell out because they’ll sell the other 30,000 seats to Irish folks. So we feel really good about it.“

This originally wasn’t supposed to be a Big 12 Conference game.

“When the promoter reached out to us,” Pollard said, “we were trying to find an opponent. So I gave him a list of schools that Coach (Matt) Campbell would be willing to play. I'm not going to say who those were, but it was fascinating how the promoter crossed schools off.

“There were some Big Ten schools, some ACC schools, and the promoter was like, ‘No, can't do that, because those schools won't travel.’ So for them to say they're really pleased with where we're at makes me feel good.”

Iowa State has just six home games in 2025, and a trip to nonconference Arkansas State.

“We started down this path of if we could find somebody that would go to Arkansas State in our place,” Pollard said. “It just got complicated. So we finally said we’ll be the visitor. The difference with the visitors, they just pay your expenses and you don’t get any of the gate because the home team gets that.

“They asked if we’d be willing to play a conference game, and we said yes. We asked ‘Well, do you want to do Colorado, because with Deion (Sanders) that would be a big seller?’ They came back and said ‘What if we ask K-State?’ I called (Kansas State athletics director) Gene Taylor, and he talked to (football coach Chris Kleiman), and they said they would do it.”

Thus, a lot of cardinal-and-gold and purple-and-white will fill a terrific city in a land known for green.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event for us,” said Sheila Krug of Cedar Rapids. She and her husband, Randy, are going.

“After the (11-win) Cyclone season last year,” said Randy Krug, “this is a perfect opportunity for them to showcase their talent going into this season.”

Kara and David Schemm are 2019 and 2020 Iowa State graduates who will make their first European trip, visiting England and Scotland as well as Ireland. When the game was announced last fall, “We knew we wanted to do it right away,” Kara said.

Asked if they will quaff a pint of Guinness with Kansas State fans, she joked “It depends on how nice they are.”

The game will one of four FBS contests on Aug. 23. At 11 a.m., Central time, it will be the first of the 2025 college season.

“It’s an infomercial for Iowa State University,” Pollard said. “It's like putting a bowl game on the front of the season. So that's number one.

“Number two, for the young men in this program, they're never gonna get to do a study abroad. They're never gonna get to do an internship where they go do something like this overseas. It’s going to be a four-day trip for them, but it’s still getting to something really, really neat.

“Then, number three, it's Week Zero. It’s just K-State and Iowa State who are being talked about on that Saturday before college football starts. We thought that was a good thing for us.”

Last October, 30 Dubliners associated with the event traveled to Ames for the Baylor-Iowa State football game.

“We hosted them in my office after the game,” Pollard said. “We thought we were doing them a favor by buying bottles of Guinness. We partied into the wee hours and they went through cases and cases of different beer. The only thing left in my fridge at the end of the night were all the Guinness bottles.

“They said you don't drink Guinness out of a bottle. You only drink it out of the tap.”

The stout will slowly but steadily come out of the taps when the cardinal-clads are in Publand. Draining Memphis of Busch Light is one thing. Lapping up all the Guinness in Dublin may be a game Iowa State can’t win.

  Buy Photo

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com