Holiday greetings from our Nation’s Capital, where I’ll be spending the next few days until I head down to Fort Worth for the bowl game.
A couple of notes from the academy:
-According to Chris Peludat, Air Force’s associate athletic director – tickets, the academy has sold a little more than 5,900 tickets for the Dec. 31 Armed Forces Bowl game against Houston, including a little more than 2,700 that have been bought and donated.
-As reported in The Gazette last week, Air Force football coach Troy Calhoun and athletic director Hans Mueh have met about updating and renewing Calhoun’s rolling five-year contract. According to sports information director Troy Garnhart, they will continue to meet but likely not this week, as both are on vacation.
-Keep up with the Houston Cougars at the Houston Chronicle’s web site. The paper’s Houston beat writer, Michael Murphy, also has a very good blog, which you can find here.
>5,900 tickets …including a little more than 2,700 that have been bought and donated.
Wow. When my wife and I bought our tickets, we also bought 2 tickets to donate. Your numbers indicate that almost everyone going to the game did the same. That’s impressive.
On the other hand, we should have a much bigger crowd than that. 5900 is disappointing, but the so-so venue and repeat opponent probably hurt.
- Dan.
Jake….enjoy the holidays with the family and I look forward to reading your blog and gazette stories from Ft. Worth!! Oh….is the blog dog going to do a pick???
JD -
The BlogDog already has made his pick!!! He did it Saturday night. His choice will be revealed on Dec. 30. Stay tuned!!!!
5,900 less 2,700 means that only 3,200 are planning to attend. I hope that those 2,700 tickets that have been donated are used, but I’ll be surprised if they are. Air Force needs fans in the stands. The Armed Forces Bowl officials have said several times to the media that they were impressed with the number of Air Force supporters that came to the game last year. It’s hard to understand why so many who came and had a great time last year aren’t planning to come this time. I hope the television shows a sea of blue in the Air Force section, but I’m somewhat concerned.
Falcon -
I think the sales have been affected by a bunch of factors: Last year was AF’s first bowl bid in years, so more people were chomping at the bit to go to a game; the same venue and re-match with an opponent the Falcons played earlier this season probably doesn’t help; and, well, the economy has taken a hit on plenty of businesses — why not bowls? As long as AF can sell about 8,000 or so tix, I think that would be pretty good given all the above factors.