No waiting and no lines to land a ticket to the Golden Gophers appearance against Texas Tech in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Houston, Tex. The Star Tribune reports that, as of Wednesday, Minnesota had sold about 2,000 tickets to the Dec. 28th contest.
University athletic department spokesman Garry Bowman told the paper he’s “relatively happy” with that number. He added that he expects the number to climb in the coming weeks. The last time the Gophers made a bowl appearance, in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz. in 2009, the University moved just over 1,000 tickets.
One charter flight to Houston has sold out, and another one is expected to be booked. Gopher fans can take advantage of a package deal that includes airfare, rooms at the team hotel, ground transportation, tickets to the game and a pregame tailgate party for $1000 per person.
To secure an invitation to the game, the Gophers had to commit to buying 12,000 tickets The Big Ten will keep the University from taking on a large financial loss by subsidizing the team’s commitment. In the past three years, more than 68,000 tickets were sold to the Meineke Car Care game. Ticket sales have gotten a boost because a Texas university has been invited to play in the contest at the Houston Texans’ Reliant Stadium in five of the seven years of the bowl’s history.
