HONOLULU — Season ticket sales for the University of Hawaii football team are lagging, and could be the lowest in four decades.
Just more than 15,500 tickets were sold for the seven-game home season, putting it in jeopardy of not selling at least 18,000 season tickets for the first time since the 1970s, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Thursday.
“I don’t want to peg a number right now because, quite frankly, we normally have a late (summer) push,” said athletic director Ben Jay.
“I’m realistic that we are coming off a 3-9 and a 1-11 season, but I look at it this way: This team is looking up,” Jay said. “I mean, we are a much better team.”
Jay remains optimistic they will be close to last season’s total numbers.
Hawaii sold 18,354 tickets last year. The total was 27,700 in 2008, coming off Hawaii’s Sugar Bowl season, and the record for tickets sold was 36,150 in 1986.
The Rainbow Warriors open the season at home Aug. 30 against Washington.
Meanwhile, ticket sales for Hawaii’s volleyball team could surpass a six-year record. As of Wednesday, 3,748 season tickets were sold, topping 3,720 sold last year.
Defending champion Florida State No. 1 in coaches’ poll
Florida State received 1,543 overall points and earned 56 of a possible 62 first-place votes in the poll, which was released Thursday. Alabama was second in the poll despite not receiving any first-place votes. Rounding out the top five were Oklahoma, Oregon and Auburn with the first-ever playoff looming at the end season.
Ohio State was sixth, UCLA seventh, Michigan State eighth, South Carolina ninth and Baylor 10th.
The Southeastern Conference had five of the top 13 teams in the poll, with No. 12 Georgia and No. 13 LSU joining Alabama, Auburn and South Carolina.
Oklahoma received three first-place votes. Oregon, Ohio State and South Carolina received one first-place vote each.
Suspended Buckeye pleads in brawl
ELYRIA, Ohio — A former Ohio State University player has pleaded no contest to a lesser charge in a felony drug case against him.
The (Elyria) Chronicle-Telegram reported that Tracy Sprinkle pleaded Thursday to attempted failure to comply, a misdemeanor. He received a $500 fine, 30-day suspended jail sentence and two years’ probation.
Sprinkle was charged after a brawl outside a bar in Lorain on July 4. He also was charged with drug paraphernalia, rioting and failure to disperse.
The redshirt freshman is suspended from the team.