New Orleans– The French Quarter is filled to the brim with Louisville and Florida fans, but something doesn’t look quite right. For every Gators fan you see, there are at least five other people dressed in Cardinal red. Tickets are still selling on both athletic association websites, but Louisville has outsold Florida almost two fold. Florida Coach Will Muschamp attributes poor ticket sales on Florida’s end to the fact going to the game is just plain expensive.
“I think obviously right now, with the economy, we’re going through a tough time in the country. I think that certainly has affected everyone, not just Gator fans…And there’s different ways to get tickets other than going through the University Athletic Association…I don’t worry about that. I worry about third down and stuff like that. I let Jeremy [Foley] worry about that.”
Louisville Head Coach Charlie Strong says he thinks there are more Cardinals fans because they are happy to make it to a BCS bowl game.
“It’s our second BCS Bowl game. So our fans are really excited about getting to a BCS Bowl. And I don’t know if it had anything to do with me saying I wanted to stay, but I think our fans are going to support us now no matter what because we have a chance to get to a BCS.”
According to NOLA.com,
“UF was unable to sell even half of its 17,500 ticket allotment to the game. The Gators managed only to pedal only 7,000 seats for the game. Louisville did much better though it failed to sell its complete allotment. The Cardinals sold more 14,500 tickets.”
Of course you can catch all the action right here on ESPN Radio 850/900, with The First and Ten Pregame show starting at 5:30 PM Wednesday night, followed by IMG Florida pregame coverage with kick off at 8:30 pm ET.