Posted on: Tuesday, July 30, 2002

Alabama ticket requests rolling in

Advertiser Staff

Can you say "Roll Tide?"

If you can't, chances are there will be 4,000-5,000 Alabama faithful to help you when the University of Hawai'i plays the Crimson Tide Nov. 30 at Aloha Stadium.

Ticket requests for the UH game had to be postmarked by yesterday and the Alabama ticket office said based upon early returns it expects to sell between 4,000-5,000.

"The tickets are going very well," said Rhoda Vaughn, Alabama ticket manager.

Hugh Yoshida, UH athletic director, said the sales are, "probably the most of any initial sale to a (visiting) institution."

Initially, UH had made 2,500 tickets available to Alabama, but agreed to accommodate the additional requests, school officials said.

Alabama only made the tickets available to members of its Tide Pride booster club, which is composed of those who pay a surcharge of $75-to-$1,200 per ticket for season tickets. Cost of the UH-Alabama tickets is $28.

Crimson Tide officials and Alabama area travel agents said there are currently no tickets available there for non-members although they have received inquiries. Those fans are being told to contact UH or Aloha Stadium.

Yoshida said when sales are complete, including those not sold through Alabama directly, the number of Crimson Tide fans who show up may match or surpass those from UH's previous sales for games against Nebraska (1976), Southern Cal (1978) and Notre Dame (1991).

Vaughn said Alabama sent its largest number of fans to a game outside the region when 16,500 bought tickets for the 2000 game at UCLA.