Tennessee wants to sell 70,000 football season tickets by 2026, like it did under Butch Jones
Almost three-quarters of Neyland Stadium was filled by Tennessee football season-ticket holders in 2016.
Athletics director Danny White thinks the Vols can return to that level, selling at least 70,000 season tickets annually by 2026. The rebuild of the fan base is one of the key goals in UT’s five-year strategic plan released Thursday.
UT sold 52,236 season tickets in the 2021 season. It averaged 67,488 in the five seasons before the pandemic limited capacity in 2020.
The 2016 season touted 73,116 tickets sold when the Vols had a 9-4 record in coach Butch Jones’ fourth season. It suggests the Vols could reach 70,000 again under the right conditions.
“Those are aggressive goals, but I expect that we’ll pass them,” White said. “We looked at a lot of historical stuff. We’ve hit 70,000 before, and it wasn’t that long ago.
“I know attendance is an issue nationally. But what I’m learning about this fan base and what I saw happen last fall after coming out of a pandemic and all the challenges we’ve had competitively, I’m not sure that the trends nationally apply to Vol nation.”
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How many season tickets Tennessee sold
UT touts one of the largest fan bases and stadiums in college football, but season-ticket sales have declined in recent years. Here are the numbers:
2015: 67,257
2016: 73,116
2017: 69,073
2018: 65,435
2019: 62,560
2020: Limited capacity due to pandemic
2021: 52,236
UT’s five-year plan calls for a steady increase. Here are the goals:
2022: 56,000
2023: 61,000
2024: 68,000
2025: 69,000
2026: 70,000
Neyland Stadium capacity will decrease from 102,455 to 101,915 for the 2022 season after renovations are completed. But there still will be room for the season-ticket base to grow.
Who Vols will play at Neyland Stadium in future seasons
UT must win and play an attractive home schedule for season-ticket sales to spike.
Highs in recent years came in 2016 and 2017, which both followed 9-4 seasons. And sales weren’t far behind in the 2015 season, which included a home game against Oklahoma.
In the five-year plan, the largest projected increase in season-ticket sales is 2024, when Oklahoma will return to Neyland Stadium. UT coach Josh Heupel led the Sooners to the 2000 national title as a Heisman Trophy runner-up quarterback.
In 2021, the Vols had a 7-6 record in Heupel’s first season with the highest-scoring offense in program history. ACC champion Pittsburgh was the highlight of the non-conference home slate.
In 2022, UT will host Ball State, Akron and UT Martin in non-conference home games. In 2023, Austin Peay, UT San Antonio and Connecticut will come to Neyland Stadium.
There are no non-conference home games scheduled for 2025 and 2026. But with Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC no later than 2025, member schools must remain flexible in scheduling.
Ticket repricing plan debuts this season
White said a season-ticket cap hasn’t been set. And even if sales goals are met, he wants single-game tickets to remain an option for UT fans on a budget.
“I don’t know that we ever want to be sold out on season tickets. It’s something we’re debating internally — what a season-ticket sellout number means,” White said. “We’ll decide on that pretty soon because I want to make sure we’re accessible to every family in Tennessee to come watch the Vols. And it doesn’t make sense for everyone, geographically or financially, to have season tickets.”
Affordability, equity and uniformity were key elements of UT’s season-ticket repricing plan this season.
Tickets range from $300 to $5,500 per seat, including the price of the ticket and any possible donation, and cost the same for every season ticket in the same section.
White said 60% of fans saw their season-ticket price drop from 2021 to 2022. And some season tickets will not require an annual donation, which UT hopes will expand the fan base.
The repricing plan also separates football season tickets from premium benefits to basketball, baseball and softball events, which aligns UT with other SEC schools.
Season tickets and donations will be separate for each sport, accounting for a projected increase in unrestricted annual fundraising from $34 million to $40 million over the next five years.
UT also hopes to increase season-ticket sales for men’s and women’s basketball.
There were 13,562 season tickets sold for men’s basketball in the 2021-22 season. The plan projects an increase to 14,500 over the next five years. The goal for Lady Vols season tickets climbs from 5,500 in 2022-23 to 8,000 in 2026-27.
“I knew what we would need to do from a budget standpoint to be competitive (when hired by UT in January 2021),” White said. “I know what the top of the SEC and top of the country looks like, and I knew where Tennessee was.
“I’m more confident now having been here and getting to know this fan base that we can get there (to ticket sales goals) as quickly as we’re describing in this plan.”
Reach Adam Sparks at adam.sparks@knoxnews.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Tennessee wants to sell 70,000 football season tickets by 2026
