by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
With just a few days before the game, tickets for the Dec. 2 Dr Pepper ACC Championship game between Wake Forest and Ga. Tech are still available – and they may be right up until kickoff or even after.
With two of the smallest-enrollment institutions in the ACC coming to town, the depth of the nationwide alumni pools and the size of local fan bases are creating a challenge for both the Gator Bowl Association and souvenir retailers.
“Sales are slow,” said Rick Catlett, president of the GBA. “(ACC Commissioner) John Swofford said sell it out and it stays, so we need to put 58,000 fans in the seats to keep the game here. If we’re 10,000 short, it’s questionable.”
Catlett said that Ga. Tech knowing for a couple of weeks that they were in the game helped sales. Wake Forest joining the mix just six days before the game didn’t help advance ticket sales and the fact that Wake Forest is No. 11 in a 12-school conference in terms of enrollment also hasn’t helped.
Catlett pointed out the last time the Demon Deacons got grass stains on their football jerseys in Jacksonville was Jan. 1, 1946 when they won the inaugural Gator Bowl game.
The Gator Bowl Association has mounted an aggressive advertising schedule and is making lots of calls to supporters in the business community to sell the tickets.
Catlett also said, “This is not a team-specific game. It’s a conference championship and there aren’t that many of them.”
Harold Fine, owner of Discount Pro Wear at the Landing, is also making lots of phone calls – not to sell tickets, but to find Wake Forest merchandise to put on his display racks this weekend.
“We hated we had to wait so long to find out about Wake Forest,” said Fine, who added that Wake Forest merchandise is never a big seller at his store but he stocks it, “Because it’s ACC and it’s a southern team, but Wake Forest is way down the list when it comes to sales. We sell about 18 hats, six T-shirts and three or four license plate frames a year.”
Discount Pro Wear regularly stocks six styles of Wake Forest hats and one style of T-shirt compared to 75 hat styles and more than 50 different T-shirt designs for the University of Florida, said Fine.
He also said he can understand the challenges involved with selling tickets for a Demon Deacons vs. any other team game.
“If Wake Forest brought everybody, it would still be a small crowd.”
Atlantic Coast Conference Enrollment
1. Florida State 38,886
2. Maryland 35,329
3. N.C. State 29,957
4. Virginia Tech 28,000
5. North Carolina 26,878
6. Virginia 20,399
7. Clemson 17,181
8. Miami 15,520
9. Ga. Tech 16,000
10. Boston College 14,500
11. Wake Forest 6,451
12. Duke 6,244
Average enrollment — 21,274
Source: Atlantic Coast Conference