By
Ryan Gabrielson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Many Ohio State fans expected to attend
While most University of Arizona students aren't expecting to be smelling the roses come January, it hasn't hurt ticket sales for the first home football game of the season against Ohio State University, said Darlene Caselan Sprigg, director of ticket operations.
"I anticipate we'll be sold out," Sprigg said.
Long lines of students waited outside the ticket windows on the south side of the McKale Center yesterday, leaving only single tickets remaining in the students' section.
"Students have been coming out pretty crazy since Tuesday," Sprigg said.
Only about 5,000 seats remain before this Saturday's game is sold out.
Though there aren't as many season ticket holders this year as last - about 33,000 seats were taken by season ticket holders last year and about 27,000 this year - Sprigg said that this year's numbers are higher than the two years prior to the 1999 season.
"Last year was a real phenomenal year," she said.
Even though Brent Evans, 27, opted to not renew his season tickets for this season, he was still in line yesterday to purchase seats for the home opener.
"Especially since they looked good on defense (last week against the University of Utah)," Evans said.
Some fans said they were discouraged by the small expectations of the football team, but were also in line to buy tickets to the game.
"I guess I'm a little less likely, but it's still an experience to go," said Louie Loweree, a biology freshman.
Ohio State fans are also expected to attend the game in large numbers, Sprigg said.
"A lot of Ohio fans - they're coming out of the woodwork," she said.
A tailgate party for an estimated 1,700 Ohio State fans is being organized near Old Main, Sprigg said.
At the end of August, an agreement was reached to continue transporting people to the UA football games on buses from three locations in Tucson. Previously, football fans could have been picked up at five locations.
"Before they made a decision, we had a lot of phone calls," said Sprigg concerning how some concerned ticket holders would get to the games without the bus system. "Most will be happy with the fact that there's something out there."
The ticket office will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and tomorrow. Student tickets cost $6.
