Strong demand for Sun Bowl tickets

December 06, 2010|By Diane Daniels (ddaniels@wsbt.com)

By late Monday, Josh Berlo with Notre Dame’s ticket office was also predicting a sellout of all 8,000 tickets the Fighting Irish had been allotted.

“At this time, the university is no longer accepting orders from the general public for the Sun Bowl lottery. Notre Dame alumni, parents, benefactors, faculty, staff, and friends may still apply for Sun Bowl tickets through Wednesday,” Berlo said.

Notre Dame’s ticket office can be reached at 574-631-7356. Results of Notre Dame’s Sun Bowl ticket lottery will be made available Friday.

As of late Monday, Miami still had about 2,500 tickets left. Ticket officials for the Hurricanes urge Notre Dame fans still seeking tickets to get them through Miami at www.hurricanesports.com. Phone orders for tickets are being taken at 1-800-GO-CANES.

Olivas is predicting record attendance at this year’s Sun Bowl. The previous record for that facility was set last year at 53,713. He says the Sun Bowl is currently considering the option of selling standing-room-only tickets. He says that the largest contingency of fans to ever come to the Sun Bowl from any school was back in 2000 when Wisconsin brought 10,000 fans. Olivas expects Notre Dame to exceed that this year.

For El Paso’s population, the game is epic. Olivas says 80% of the city is Hispanic and 89% is Catholic, so the ND v. Miami game is of huge local interest.

As for the old “Catholics v. Convicts” slogan that used to be the label applied to the ND v. Miami rivalry, Olivas says the Sunbowl does not want that resurrected. He says it’s a new day, and a new rivalry involving players who were not part of that era.

El Paso is also just across the border from Juarez, Mexico. Juarez has made headlines for well over a year for the huge amount of drug violence and murders that have occurred there. Olivas says in spite of that, El Paso has been ranked as one of the safest cities in the U.S. based on crime statistics.

Jill Walsh with Anthony Travel, which is the official travel agency for Notre Dame, says her agents have not been fielding questions about safety or security concerns from callers booking travel arrangements to the Sun Bowl. Walsh says the biggest issue her agency is dealing with is the limited availability of seats on flights to El Paso. She urges potential Sun Bowl attendees to book their flights soon. Anthony Travel is handling travel reservations through its website at www.NotreDameTravel.com.

As for any disappointment that Notre Dame isn’t going to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando as had been predicted, Walsh offers the following where El Paso is concerned, ”It’s still a fun, big city and a warmer climate than people coming from here are experiencing right now. From what we’ve heard, they’re one of the top bowls that show the best hospitality for bowl travelers.”

In fact, Olivas is quick to mention that the Sun Bowl Fan Fiesta scheduled for December 30^th in downtown El Paso, will likely draw a record crowd.

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