Looks like we will be seeing a lot of you in Nashville.
According to a report this weekend in that city’s newspaper, The Tennessean (good newspaper name, that), the Music City Bowl was nearing a sellout as of Saturday.
More than 65,000 tickets have been sold for the Dec. 30 game at Nissan Stadium, which will be televised on ESPN.
“We’re feeling great about the ticket sales; very excited,” Music City Bowl president and CEO Scott Ramsey said Saturday.
The last time the bowl was a sellout was 2010 when Tennessee played North Carolina.
The only other years the bowl sold out at Nissan Stadium came in 2004 for Alabama-Minnesota, 2006 for Kentucky-Clemson and 2007 for Kentucky-Florida State.
Also from that story, Tennessee had already sold its allotment of 8,000 tickets and Nebraska was expecting to sellout shortly. When I checked this morning, you could still buy two tickets via Huskers.com.
With 65,000 tickets already sold, assuming that translates directly to attendance, the Music City Bowl would already be the largest bowl crowd to watch the Huskers play since the Gator Bowl matchup against Clemson following Bo Pelini’s first season at Nebraska.
Capacity for Nissan Stadium for the Music City Bowl is listed at 68,000. Should attendance climb that high, this would be the most-attended bowl game featuring the Huskers since the 2002 Rose Bowl (93,781).
Having Tennessee in the game certainly doesn’t hurt, but never underestimate the draw of Nashville.
Here are Nebraska’s bowl game attendance since that Rose Bowl meeting with Miami:
2015 Foster Farms Bowl v. UCLA – 33,527
2014 Holiday Bowl v. USC – 55,978
2013 Gator Bowl v. Georgia – 60,712
2012 Capital One Bowl v. Georgia – 59,712
2011 Capital One Bowl v. South Carolina – 61,351
2010 Holiday Bowl v. Washington – 57,921
2009 Holiday Bowl v. Arizona – 64,607
2008 Gator Bowl v. Clemson – 67,282
2006 Cotton Bowl v. Auburn – 66,777
2005 Alamo Bowl v. Michigan – 62,000
2003 Alamo Bowl v. Michigan State – 56,229
2002 Independence Bowl v. Ole Miss – 46,096
The Grab Bag
- It’s Nebraska, Texas, Minnesota and Stanford in the volleyball Final Four. Good recap here from VolleyballMag.com on how each team got there.
- Bo Pelini’s Youngstown State squad is into the semifinals of the FCS bracket after an overtime win over Wofford (hat tip: The Option) on Saturday. Up next for the Penguins: A long flight to face Eastern Washington on the blood turf.
- Charlie Strong wasn’t out of work for long, accepting the South Florida job on Sunday.
- Good read from Jon Solomon on Army’s first win over Navy in 15 years.
- Here’s your complete list of bowl projections from BCftoys.com, which gives Tennessee a 10-point edge over Nebraska.
Today’s Song of Today
https://youtu.be/6JQdX4XsRmU
Brandon is the Managing Editor for Hail Varsity and has covered Nebraska athletics for the magazine and web since 2012, Hail Varsity’s first season on the scene. His sports writing has also been featured by Fox Sports, The Guardian and CBS Sports.
