Saturday, September 22, 2012
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
With more than 15 years as Youngstown State University’s marketing director, Rick Love has learned the secret to selling tickets.
“Winning is the best marketing tool,” he said. “It’s no secret people like to watch winners.”
That’s why Love is anticipating one of the biggest crowds in Stambaugh Stadium history when the unbeaten Penguins look to snap an 11-game losing streak to conference rival Northern Iowa.
The school already has distributed 18,000 tickets, and Love said he hasn’t seen this much excitement for a football game in more than a decade.
“In terms of phones ringing, people lining up down the hallway [of the ticket office] and standing in line early, you’d have to date back to 2000,” he said.
All general-admission tickets are sold out, so if you don’t yet have a ticket, prepare to spend $18 for a reserved seat. The ticket office opens at 9 a.m.
YSU’s two biggest crowds came in 2000, in back-to-back games against UNI (21,119) and Buffalo (20,813). If the forecast cooperates, tonight’s game could challenge those marks. The forecast does call for rain.
“My wife’s been yelling at me because I’ve been watching the radar every hour on the eights,” Love said. “She’s like, ‘Do you think it’s going to change?’ And I’m like, ‘It might.’”
“Hopefully, it’ll get through here by the 7 o’clock kickoff. Bring your rain jacket and come on out,” he added.