Welcome to ticket madness

With football season quickly approaching and basketball just over the horizon, excitement is building and the crazy dichotomy of Kentucky sports is becoming clear. In other words, football season ticket sales are the lowest they’ve been in a very long time. While on the basketball side of things, people are practically already lining up for Big Blue Madness tickets to get a glimpse of the new squad. The giant banner made famous at last year’s Big Blue Madness had four simple words. “Kentucky basketball never stops,” but apparently Kentucky football does.

Football season tickets sale are down a staggering 21% compared to this time last year, and down 35% compared to 2010′s numbers. The most harrowing fact of all is that student season ticket sales have decreased significantly more than sales to the public. At only $35 for the year ($5 per home game) student tickets are an absurdly good deal. Students just don’t care about the star-less and win-less Kentucky football program as it stands. The dichotomy between basketball and football rages, both on the field and court, and in the stands.

The lackluster football sales are further put into perspective by the recent announcement regarding Big Blue Madness tickets. Anyone seeking tickets to the event, which isn’t actually competitive (unlike football games), is told to line up no sooner than three days prior to the ticket window opening. Fans will bring their tents and their coolers and wait three days for tickets to a single night of hoopla on the basketball court, but students aren’t willing to put out $5 a game to support the football team. It’s madness, plain and simple.

Joker Phillips already said it best when ticket sales were down a few weeks ago. “These players don’t need everybody to believe in them, but they damn sure need somebody to,” Phillips pleaded at Kentucky’s Kickoff Luncheon. “And I expect you, the Big Blue Nation, to get behind this football team. Why? Because we are UK. Simply said, we are UK.”

Here’s more information on purchasing football season tickets, as well as the details on Big Blue Madness tickets. We are UK, indeed.