David Briggs: As demand for Ohio State tickets crashes, what gives?

Sep. 22—So, which came first: the crashing demand for Ohio State football tickets or the pandemic?

The chicken or the COVID?

To quote the face-value price of a nosebleed ticket to a premium Buckeyes game, that's the $210 question in Columbus, where a seat in Ohio Stadium has suddenly — and shockingly — become easier to find than a needle in a sewing shop.

Have you seen the crowds? No, really, anyone seen them?

Ohio State is looking.

The search party first went out with the eye-opening announcement days before the Oregon game that 10,000 tickets remained for the big showdown and has carried on in earnest.

When the Buckeyes hosted Tulsa on Saturday, you could have added the entire city of Perrysburg (population: 25,041) to the 102,780-seat Horseshoe and still the place wouldn't have been full. The crowd of 76,540 was the lowest at Ohio Stadium since 1971, when 75,596 fans attended the Buckeyes' opener against Iowa.

The record books could get another workout this weekend, too.

I'm not saying the scene at Akron-Ohio State will call to mind the schools' first meeting in 1891 — when a curious handful came out to watch the Buckeyes' 4-0 victory — but that's only because it's difficult to imagine the OSU defense hanging a zero on anyone (even the Zips).

In any case, it all begs the question: At the same time Michigan continues to pack the Big House — with the Wolverines averaging 107,968 fans through three home games — what's going on in Columbus?

Is the sagging enthusiasm for the in-person experience more of a one-off blip during a pandemic that understandably has many wary of cramming back into stadiums? Or a reflection of trends that were already well in motion?

Answer: Yes.

It's a little bit of everything, as was the case Saturday against winless Tulsa.

Start with the steep drop of season ticket sales. According to records provided by Ohio State, the university sold 42,373 non-student season tickets by the renewal deadline on July 1 — a renewal rate of only 84 percent — and 15,808 full-season student packages (it sold 25,182 Big Ten-only student packages).

Then factor in the hangover after the loss to Oregon, the blah opponent, and a 90-degree day on loan from Hades, which Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said resulted in more than 200 medical treatment runs during the game.

Not a great recipe.

But, of course, the Buckeyes have played bad teams after bad losses on bad days before, and still the fans turned out. This time, even many with tickets didn't want to go, and, like a bed-bug-spotted mattress on the curb, couldn't give them away, either. Incredibly, more than 20,000 tickets went unused.

"I know people are concerned with price," Smith said of a tiered structure in which the face-value cost of the cheapest ticket ranges from $63 (Tulsa) to $210 (Penn State). "But those [tickets] were sold and there were tickets available via third party."

We've never seen anything like this, and, in fact, we haven't seen this little demand at any other top program this season, suggesting the pandemic is but one factor. Let's not pretend Ohioans are simply more virus-conscious than fans in Michigan or Iowa or Pennsylvania, all states that, for the record, have higher vaccination rates. Penn State and Iowa — the other two top-10 teams in the Big Ten — have been at 100 percent and 94 percent of capacity, respectively.

That tells me there are deeper issues at play, a reflection of simmering challenges felt across the sport — college football attendance reached a 23-year low in 2019 — including at Ohio State. (While all is relative, the Buckeyes went from averaging more than 107,000 fans per home game from 2015-17 to 101,947 in 2018 and 103,383 in 2019.)

My view: The in-home TV experience has gotten so good and the ticket prices so high that Ohio State was flirting with a dangerous breaking point that relied on the Buckeyes winning every game (by an acceptable margin).

And now the bubble has burst. (At least for the moment. "Our fans are fantastic," Smith told me, "and I would anticipate as we hit the Big Ten run things will be better.")

While nothing can match the energy and experience of attending a big game, what about the other ones?

If you're an Ohio State fan, what would your call have been Saturday? Pay good money to sit in the heat for a four-hour game (seriously?) that will either be a walkover or make you mad if it's not? Or watch it on the 68-inch humongotron in the comfort of your La-Z-Boy with the built-in fridge?

With respect to Alabama, that's Ohio State's toughest opponent.

First Published September 21, 2021, 3:16pm