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Apathy to Arrowhead: Husker Ticket Boom an Indicator

Will rejuvenated fan interest be rewarded with wins?
Spencer Schubert|
Husker fans cheer on Nebraska against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Husker fans cheer on Nebraska against the Iowa Hawkeyes. | Reese Strickland-Imagn Images

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Nebraska Cornhuskers

In college sports, if fans aren't interested in a team, it takes on many forms.

Team merchandise remains on the shelves, campus looks like a ghost town and game days look like a busy Tuesday with some midterm exams at best. Stadiums or arenas are half-filled, and unless the school has a good marketing/public relations team -- you might not even know there was a game in the first place!

For the Nebraska football team, it's unfathomable to think that level of disinterest is even possible, but the past decade has tested one of the most loyal fan bases in the sport. Identified as the "greatest fans in college football" by famed broadcaster Keith Jackson, they've stood the test of time and some pretty bad football.

The sellout streak is still alive (403 consecutive games and counting), but it's come under some justified scrutiny in recent years. The lowest of lows came back on Oct.1, 2022. Nebraska started the year 1-3 with losses to a Northwestern team picked to finish last in the Big Ten (in Ireland), Georgia Southern in a 45-42 shootout, and understandably then-No. 6 Oklahoma in a 49-14 rout - in Lincoln no less.

Former Nebraska Coach Scott Frost
Former head coach Scott Frost walks on the field before a game against the Georgia Southern Eagles at Memorial Stadium. It ended up being his last as Nebraska's head coach. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

This was also the stretch where Nebraska finally pulled the plug on Scott Frost as head coach. Team morale was in the tank, and the fan base already started to turn its focus to the national power volleyball team for yet another year. However, there was a lot of football left whether the fans wanted to go see it or not.

The next game was a home game against Indiana - homecoming no less. Just days before kickoff, thousands of tickets were still unsold, leaving the school's nation-leading sellout streak in real jeopardy. We all know how the saga ended, with donors and school boosters buying up the unsold tickets, which were then given to student organizations, local schools and other various groups who maybe otherwise wouldn't have taken in a Husker football game on their own.

It was promoted by the university as an act of good in the community, but for those keeping an eye on the historic sellout streak and its validity through the years, it was also viewed as an act of desperation to keep the streak alive. Regardless of your stance on it, Nebraska achieved its 386th-consecutive sellout that day against Indiana, but the negative headlines weren't done yet.

Nebraska vs. Wisconsin
Nebraska lost 15-14 to Wisconsin in front of just 46,613 fans in 2022. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Fast forward a little more than a month, and Nebraska reached a new ticketing low, but this time via scanned ticket attendance. For a stadium that boasts more than 80,000 seats, the Omaha World-Herald first reported that scanned attendance to the team's Nov. 19 game against Wisconsin was 46,613. That was the lowest scanned ticket total since the World-Herald started tracking the statistic. However, per the university and its actual sold tickets, the streak continued, and the university and the fan base made it through another season that ended without a bowl game appearance.

While 2023 saw an improvement in scanned tickets (per the Omaha World-Herald), four of the seven home games still saw discrepancies of more than 20,000 fans between reported attendance and scanned tickets. Here is a snapshot look at the findings of the Omaha World-Herald that season:

Game (2023 Season)

Announced Attendance

Scanned Attendance

Sept. 23 vs. Louisiana Tech

87,115

66,287

Oct. 28 vs. Purdue

86,709

54,866

Nov. 11 vs. Maryland

86,830

64,352

Nov. 24 vs. Iowa

86,183

62,366

On average in 2023, Nebraska scanned 65,888 tickets per game, which came to a 77.9% utilization rate from another season of sellouts in Lincoln. Weather certainly comes into play, but so does the play on the field. The lowest turnout came in the Oct. 28 showdown with Purdue, with a 31,843 difference between reported attendance and actual fans in the stadium.

While we don't have the specific announced attendance for scanned attendance data for 2024, the announced attendance did climb to the tune of ~ 86,894 per game. That exceeds Memorial Stadium's capacity on average at 101.7%. Notable attendance figures from last season included Rutgers (87,464) and UCLA (87,453). As for the bowl-clinching win against Wisconsin in Lincoln, 86,923 tickets were sold for that showdown.

What head coach Matt Rhule has done with the team in his first few years has been nothing short of remarkable. It helps when you're likable, interact with fans, and show humility when you have one of the coolest jobs in the state of Nebraska. It's not far-fetched to think more people know Matt Rhule is the Nebraska football coach than know Jim Pillen is Nebraska's governor. Any time you have a brand new coach come in, there's an inherent boost in interest and expectations as well. That of course translates to butts in the seats, but as we enter year three under Rhule the doubt surrounding the sellout streak and its validity is getting more and more faint.

In fact, Husker Athletics Director Troy Dannen provided an update that backed up the shift in fan support and morale. During a broadcast of Sports Nightly on a Tuesday in late May, Dannen announced that roughly 62,000 tickets had already been sold for Nebraska's season-opener against Cincinnati in Kansas City - a neutral site game for both teams. For those keeping track, Arrowhead Stadium's capacity is 76,000. Selling an additional 14,000 tickets from June to the August kickoff seems like a lay-up.

What makes the number even more impressive is considering how one-sided the crowd will likely be for the game. It's a short three-hour drive for Husker fans to saddle up at the home of the Kansas City Chiefs. For Bearcat fans, they'd have to endure nearly a 9-hour road trip or hop on a plane. Long story short - expect a lot of red.

Just seven days ago, the university gave another push toward single-game ticket sales starting at $45 for the seven home games in 2025, and it must have worked. It's been just one week since that push, and if you go to buy a single-game ticket, you'll notice that the Michigan game is already sold out.

Husker game sold out
Tickets for the Michigan game are officially sold out per Nebraska's website at huskers.com. | Huskers.com

Of the six games not sold out, the home games vs. Akron, Houston Christian and Northwestern are notated with a "Not Many Left" label. Also, as you can see from the image above, the university is still offering a 3-game mini-plan for fans this year, but the Michigan game is no longer an option for the packages. For the sake of being a salesman for them for a brief second, if you're looking to snag a ticket to any of the remaining six games, check out www.huskers.com/tickets or call the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office at 800-8-BIG-RED during their business hours of 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Sales pitch over!

Ultimately, the questionable nature of the longest sellout streak will still be ridiculed by some. When there are multiple instances of 30,000 and even 40,000-fan gaps from reported attendance to scanned tickets, it's fair to be critical. However, if the season opener in Kansas City and the dwindling availability of tickets to the remaining six home games is an indicator, we might be making a gradual return to the days of finding it impossible to get our hands on a Husker ticket. If Rhule and company can string together winning seasons and even flirt with the 8 or 9-win range again, attending a Husker football game will be a privilege again, not a reluctance.

My 1990s Husker upbringing as a kid from Kearney would be proud.

Nebraska Football 2025 Schedule

  • Aug. 28 (Thursday) vs. Cincinnati (Kansas City) 8 p.m. CDT on ESPN
  • Sep. 6 vs. Akron 6:30 p.m. CDT on BTN
  • Sep. 13 vs. Houston Christian 11 a.m. CDT on FS1
  • Sep. 20 vs. Michigan 2:30 p.m. CDT on CBS
  • Oct. 4 vs. Michigan State 11/2:30/3 CDT
  • Oct. 11 at Maryland TBA
  • Oct. 17 (Friday) at Minnesota 7 p.m. CDT on FOX
  • Oct. 25 vs. Northwestern TBA
  • Nov. 1 vs. USC TBA
  • Nov. 8 at UCLA TBA
  • Nov. 22 at Penn State TBA
  • Nov. 28 (Black Friday) vs. Iowa 11 a.m. CST on CBS

Home games are bolded.

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Spencer Schubert
SPENCER SCHUBERT

Spencer Schubert is a born-and-raised Nebraskan who now calls Hastings home. He grew up in Kearney idolizing the Huskers as every kid in Nebraska did in the 1990s, and he turned that passion into a career of covering the Big Red. Schubert graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2009, and kickstarted what's now become a 17 year career in journalism. He's served in a variety of roles in broadcasting, including weekend sports anchor at KHGI-TV(NTV) in Kearney, Sports Director at WOAY-TV in West Virginia and Assistant News Director, Executive Producer and Evening News Anchor for KSNB-TV(Local4) in Hastings. Off the clock, you'll likely find Schubert with a golf club in his hand and spending time with his wife, 5-year-old daughter and dog Emmy.

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