Texas Tech Fans Allegedly Sell Out Arenas in Austin, Too
Attendance has been an issue for the University of Texas and Chris Beard this season as they try and convince the people of Austin to give a hoot about their basketball team.
The Texas basketball team has two fans. I'm sure there are more, but where Texas Tech has Raider Riot, a group full of thousands, the Longhorns have only been able to single out two fans worth a mention: Hawaiian Shirt Guy, and Incredibly Loud Guy.
Seriously.
Now, I don't want to discount what Chris Beard did in Lubbock to build the fan attendance to what it is today, but it's obviously sustaining without him, so I don't think fans came to see Beard as much as they showed up for the Double T. Chris Beard always understood that the United Supermarkets Arena and the faithful Red Raiders were a huge part to his success in Lubbock.
He still knows it. After their latest home loss, a disappointing one-point killer against Kansas State, Beard talked about the relationship between winning and attendance.
Coincidentally, Texas Tech also had a game that night against Iowa State and the upper deck was packed while the arena in Austin was sparse, to put it gently.
The most anticipated game on the schedule for the Red Raiders' fanbase is obviously February, 1st when Beard and his Longhorns come to Lubbock. That game is going to sell out and then some with ticket resellers getting more than $1,000 a ticket on various sites.
In that respect, it might be cheaper for a Texas Tech fan to watch the two teams in Austin, and that is exactly what Texas Tech fans are trying to do.
Tickets were set to go on sale to the general public for the February 19th game between Texas Tech and Texas on Friday, January 21st, but the Texas Tech fan above found a promo code and released the Texas Tech fans onto the site, which promptly crashed.
The Texas Tech fan, Jeff Brunson, then created a video tutorial on how to use the promo code to buy out the arena and make it flood with red.
A popular Texas Tech fan page Guns Up Nation then announced that the arena was sold out after a night full of ticket buying.
Some fans speculated that they just pulled the promo code because the Longhorns ticket office caught wind that the Red Raiders were trying to sell out the arena. Other fans put sites of ticket re-sale sites that still had seats available.
Whatever the case, I have no doubt that on February 19th Chris Beard and the Texas Longhorns will have their most attended game of the year, and the stadium will be mostly Red and Black. Just like Baylor's arena is when Texas Tech goes to Waco or like TCU's arena is when the Red Raiders travel to Fort Worth.