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Last week, all students received free tickets to the Syracuse Orange’s season opener vs. Colgate, as has been customary in recent years to help boost attendance for the Friday night FCS game. With the program looking for a larger crowd this Friday against the highly-ranked Louisville Cardinals, SU will once again give students free tickets:
Syracuse students will get free tickets to Friday’s football game vs. No. 13 Louisville, SU announced. Second game in a row.
— Jon Mettus (@jmettus) September 8, 2016
This announcement comes right on the heels of the university emailing students to remind them about the MetLife Stadium game vs. Notre Dame being included in their season ticket package, along with the Florida State home game during Thanksgiving break. They’ll also be getting free t-shirts for the Virginia Tech game in October.
All of this is a huge step forward for SU, in an effort to increase student support and boost attendance numbers (which haven’t been great of late). Back when I was at SU (2006-2009 football seasons), Thanksgiving games and neutral site games were not part of the deal, and we only received one t-shirt that whole time -- in 2009. We also never received free tickets to any of the games, despite the team winning a grand total of 13 games while I was there.
I’m not (THAT) bitter about that. More just pointing out the lengths SUA seems to be going to now to try to encourage more student support through added benefits of season tickets and attendance. The one potential downside could be that if you paid for season tickets early, you’re now a bit pissed that two games have already been given away. But considering the already-cheap price, and the livelier student section you get to be part of as a result, maybe it’s okay?
Here’s to hoping those pre-kickoff photos on Twitter tomorrow night aren’t as barren as we’re used to seeing.
Slight update (4:18 p.m. ET):
Worth pointing out that @cusesports44’s open letter on Twitter this past Sunday started up the fan conversation around potential free tickets for students vs. Louisville. Talk continued into the early parts of this week online, and culminated with today’s news.