Bill Martin, the University’s athletic director, announced today that
the price of football tickets will decrease for the 2009 season.
“It’s a tough economic time and there’s no need to increase ticket prices,” Bruce Madej, Athletic Department spokesman, said in a phone interview today.
The price of student tickets will decrease an average of $1.43 per game, which will put the price of the eight game season ticket package at $200. The average price per game for regular season ticket holders will be $50, down $3.57 from last year, and will total $400.
Madej said the Athletic Department has been considering the price decrease since December, when it normally starts looking at next season’s ticket pricing.
The decision comes in light of the fact that many universities around the country have been forced to increase football ticket prices because of the struggling economy.
“The interesting portion of this is that most everyone else is increasing ticket (prices),” Madej said. “We’re fortunate enough that we can hold the line, and even decrease them.”
On Feb. 15, Michigan State University announced it was raising ticket prices after a four-year freeze. General public season tickets will increase 7.1 percent, to a total cost of $308.
Similarly, Ohio State University Athletic Director Gene Smith announced Feb. 4 that Ohio State would be increasing the price of football and basketball tickets by $1 per game.
However, neither Michigan State nor Ohio State chose to increase the price of student tickets.
Individual game tickets sold to the general public will range from $50 to $65 per game for University of Notre Dame and Ohio State.
“Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State plus the reminder of the Big Ten schedule make for a very strong and exciting home schedule,” Martin said in the release. “We also have two in-state institutions (Western Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University) on the schedule, which helps keep the money in state. That is also very important during these economic times.”
Students will be able to purchase season tickets beginning in April, and the application deadline will be Friday, May 8.
The first game of the season, a home game against Western Michigan, will be on Saturday, Sept. 5 at Michigan Stadium.
— The Associated Press and Daily News Editor Jillian Berman contributed to this report