OSU could still save face by opening Bedlam seats

November 28, 2008 01:13 am

— For two straight weeks, the Saturday night football viewing audience will be watching an Oklahoma football team. Saturday night's matchup between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State doesn't have the conference implications of last week's OU-Texas Tech match but the interest is still there.
The stadium attendance, however, won't reflect that interest. There will be an estimated 10,000 empty seats because OSU has held to its policy of only selling season tickets.
The Associated Press reports OSU has sold less than 40,000 season tickets this year. They have allocated OU about 5,000 tickets. A few Sooner fans have purchased entire season tickets just to fill the one seat Saturday. The stadium holds about 60,000.
The University says it is not thinking about the 2008 season but about building season ticket sponsorship in future years. That's a lofty goal but the damage done Saturday will be just as long-term.
Television and radio commentators won't hold back when explaining the empty seats Saturday night. An OSU spokesman told the AP it would cheapen the other seats if they went back on their word and sold individual tickets for the Bedlam game.
It may have more to do with who would be most likely to sit in those seats. Sooner fans would make the drive to Stillwater if they know tickets were available. Would the university have the same policy for an out-of-state team?
How about giving them to the state's national guardsmen who just returned from nearly a year in Iraq?
OSU's new president Burns Hargis, who for most of his adult life earned his living with a law degree from the University of Oklahoma, could change the policy today and open up the ticket windows Saturday afternoon. How about it Mr. President?