HARRISONBURG — James Madison football season-ticket sales are projected to surpass last year’s total, according to Michael Carpenter, the school’s assistant athletic director for ticketing and marketing.
Carpenter said JMU has sold around 5,950 season-ticket packages as of Thursday.
“That is a great number for us,” Carpenter said. “We ended up last year at 6,020 season tickets sold and now we’re still three weeks out.”
JMU opens its season in Harrisonburg on Sept. 3 against Morehead State.
Carpenter said there is a correlation between ESPN’s visit for College GameDay to Harrisonburg last fall and increased interest in the JMU football team from fans and alumni for the upcoming season.
“We’re still kind of riding the high of College GameDay,” Carpenter said. “We had a lot of alumni
back on campus that weekend that had a great experience, despite the final outcome of the game. I think they realized what an opportunity it was to get back on campus. A lot of our alum hadn’t been on campus in years and as an alum, I can say it’s changed dramatically.”
The pregame television show was live at JMU before the team’s Oct. 24 game against Richmond — a 59-49 JMU loss. It was only the eighth time in the history of College GameDay the show aired from a non-FBS site.
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne agreed with Carpenter’s assessment.
“ESPN and the exposure that they can bring to your institution, which they did last year, affords the institution the opportunity to promote itself,” Bourne said. “I’ve heard from countless individuals who mention how wonderful it was to see James Madison in that light.”
The school sells season tickets at a wide price range starting at $126.
“We usually sell a good number of season tickets here in the last three weeks as we get the more casual fans and the fans that buy family plans,” Carpenter said.
A family plan consists of four tickets, which is sold for $368.
“I feel like we have a very good philosophy in regards to our marketing strategy,” Bourne said. “Offering ticket prices in a broad range help us attract a large number of fans to the stadium. Our goal is always to make tickets affordable for those who may never have come but want to be on campus for the first time as well as those fans that prefer more of a premium experience.”
The projected spike in ticket sales comes after a stretch of years when season-ticket sales dipped, Carpenter said.
“We opened the expanded stadium in 2011. That’s when our season-ticket number peaked because there was a huge buzz when we opened it up,” Carpenter said. “But there has actually been a general decline since the expansion.”
JMU averaged 20,240 per game in 2015 at 25,000-seat Bridgeforth, third among 125 FCS teams. Only Montana (24,139) and Yale (20,547) surpassed Madison.
Another reason Carpenter cited for improved ticket sales was JMU’s back-to-back FCS playoff berths.
“The team totally helps. And we’ve seen that each time after every year that we’ve played well and reached the postseason,” Carpenter said.
Currently, none of JMU’s home games are sold out, but Carpenter said the ticket office is “seeing good traction” of single-game sales for the home opener against Morehead State, the Oct. 1 family weekend game against Delaware and the Oct. 8 game against William & Mary.
