Inside TCU’s football ticket policy that ignited an online spat with Texas Tech

In another example of what makes college athletics an irresistible combination of fried chicken atop a chocolate sundae, TCU’s rivalry with Texas Tech now extends to ... the ticket office.

Don’t think Alabama and Auburn ever did that.

This week, the Texas Tech ticket office issued a promotional Tweet reminding fans that single-game tickets to all seven home games at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock for the 2022 season are on sale.

“And we promise you can buy tickets to ALL seven games,” @TechAthletics tweeted.

If it wasn’t a shot at TCU, it landed in Fort Worth.

Especially when TCU athletics director Jeremiah Donati responded to a Tech fan who asked him on Twitter, “@Tech sells single game tickets to all their home games.

“@TCUFootball @TCU_Athletics @JDonati_TCU with no special packages. Why can’t you?”

Donati bravely stepped into the keyboard cesspool that is Twitter, and actually responded.

“Quite aware thanks,” Donati said. “Expect it for hoops tickets too.”

This spat then extended when Texas Tech announced its $25,000 per-football-player NIL deal, which TCU recruiting coordinator Bryan Carrington mocked.

“The reality is that that extra 2k it’s gonna be a concrete ceiling for most players in scarce markets that are oversaturated with 85 scholarship players attempting to ‘build their a brand’ in a desert,” Carrington Tweeted, complete with a cactus emoji at the end.

In turn, Tech fans started using a cactus in response. Football coach Joey McGuire went so far as to add said cactus emoji to his Twitter profile.

TCU’s ticket office versus Texas Tech’s ticket office may be more interesting than the game.

TCU has won three straight in the series, including the last two by an average of 18 points. TCU’s 52-31 win over in Lubbock last season on Oct. 9 was the last victory for Gary Patterson as TCU’s head coach.

The flap isn’t about football.

It started with football tickets, and the good ol’ three-for-one ticket promotion. As in, buy-three-to-get-the-one-that-you-want.

Tech fans aren’t happy about having to buy three different tickets to TCU football games to attend the one they want; in this case, a Tech fan would have to buy three TCU games to attend the Horned Frogs’ home date on Nov. 5 against the Red Raiders.

Can’t blame ‘em for feeling frustrated.

“It’s my job to protect home field and home court,” Donati said in a phone interview this week. “There are many ways to do that. I want to see a packed stadium full of purple.

“Whether it’s West Virginia fans, Iowa State fans, Kansas fans, Texas Tech fans, they can’t be my primary concern; my primary concern is we need to protect our people first.”

And ... the primary concern of every single athletic director in the country is squeezing as much revenue out of home football games as possible.

The trend of creative ticket selling in sports started a little more than 20 years ago, when teams/schools realized they could charge more for “premium” games.

That meant an MLB team charging more for home games against the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs or a handful of other teams that have large, loyal fan bases.

That meant an NHL team charging a little bit more for games on Friday night.

For decades every single NFL team has attached its garbage preseason games to season-ticket packages. If you want to buy eight regular-season games, you must pay for the two exhibition games, too.

In the case of college teams, it means if you want to buy a ticket for “Texas versus USC” you have to buy “Texas versus Tulsa.”

Donati’s predecessor, Chris Del Conte, was a big advocate of this plan, which he has since used at his new school, Texas.

Sometimes, the three-for-one plan for a school works.

Sometimes, it’s a mud pie in their face.

“The days of buying a season ticket and sweating it out with grandpa in Row 85 is not how fans want to consume content,” Donati said. “We are trying to find ways to that sweet spot.”

It’s why Texas Tech offers single-game tickets.

No one really knows what they’re doing.

They are all trying to fill up stadiums without a guaranteed method of success.

The ugly truth is, save for a limited number of games all over the country, no team consistently sells out.

The stadiums are too big, all of them built before streaming and iPhones.

The options of watching the game at home on a 46-inch HD TV, or even in the parking lot, are too appealing.

Some of the matchups are so dull schools can’t give away tickets.

At this stage, we are all mad at the price of everything from a gallon of gas, to a gallon of milk; we all feel we are getting taken advantage of as consumers.

Because we are.

If a Tech fan wants to buy a single ticket to the Red Raiders’ game at TCU, the secondary market, such as StubHub, will be flooded with options.

It’s not that hard.

But Texas Tech versus TCU’s ticket office is fun, which is ultimately why we can’t quit this sport.