Hello Penguins .. as you can tell from my user name, I am an ISU Redbird fan.
First of all, congrats on your season and impressive playoff run. YSU has been on the brink several years in a row. I am big time MVFC advocate and felt you deserved a couple bids in recent years .. particularly in 2012 and 2013.
Whatever happens, enjoy the experience despite some of the hurdles along the way. I speak from experience.
ISU nearly had similar experience in our run to 2014 championship, when our sports admin was not prepared for the whole ticket buying aspect. Word got out quick we weren't screening who was buying tickets and Bison pounced. OUr fan board went nuts and our Sports Admin folks quickly recovered, and eventually set up priority reservation system. In the end, we used our entire allotment and then some. In 2014, we only got 2,800, plus 500 seats in corner studet sections, plus our band in the end zone. But it was initially a fiasco and our fans went nuts similar to your fans .. and rightly so.
We've had internal debates about this very thing where some fans were irate, some said it was no big deal. Issue is simple .. if Bison had won their semi, they woudl not only have bough their 4,000 and your 3,000, but also the remaining 13,000. Then you would have had to buy scattered seats from whatever Bison fans didn't need all their tickets .. and your fans would have been few and far between. My view is, fans want to sit together. And you want the full opportunity to use your entire allotment, then fight for wnatever else comes availble .. like we ultimately did after a very flawed start. Bottom line, you want your seats and you want to sit together if possible. Your admin failed you. You guys dominated the 1990's and there is a fan base out there that needs a little mojo .. like a championship run.
As for your Sports Admin saying they didn't want to lose money again .. might be fair concern, except iyou guys have history in championship of helping draw 20k to 30kk in he 1990's. Some of you admin and fans argue, money eas lost on playoff game bids and fan turnout was not good .. so Frisco turnout will not be good.
ISU does not have your history but we knew we would use our allotment. So we shut down Bison trying to buy our tickets .. some threatened to sue us .. and had priority system set up to ensure all Redbird fans got tickets from allotment. We also had fans sprinlkled throughour res of stadum .. I'd say we had close to 4k .. our 3,300 in allotted seats, plus 700 scatter through the 18,000 Bison fans.
My point about our Frisco attendance is this .. we hosted 1st round of playoff. We were MVFC co-champs, 5th seeds, playing big rival UNI .. know what we dreew for that BIG game 5,650 .. and not sure all 5,650 showed up. We also know at leat 700 were UNI. So we had less than 5k at our 1st round home playoff game. Yet somehow managed to get 4k all the way to Frisco for championship .. made Redbird Nation proud and inspired our base. Cool part aside from seeing the turnout in Frisco and hearing how loud we were compared to 18,000 Bison fans .. was watching the team do the walk from the bus to stadium .. team was stunned to see 4k aftr the weak UNI playoff turnout. Spack was fighting back tears in his walk from bus.
The good news for Penguin fans wanting tickets is Bison lost, so a lot of tickets will free up eventually. Problem is, you wont; have all your seats together. It is what it si .. ticket prices will evetually come down. JMU will have good turnout, but I doubt they will be anywhere near Bison 18k. Be a little patient on various ticket buyig sites like NCAA, STubhub, Ebay .. watch the ticket counts and prices every day to monitor acitivity. If you want a good seat, you will have to pay more and buy sooner. If you don;t care how good the seat is .. wait until couple days before .. prices will come down, and tickets should be available with Bison not playing this game.
Again, congrats and enjoy the experience .. we had a blast and nearly brought the trophy home. MOst of Redbird Nation is rooting for YSU Penguins .. way to rep the Valley !!!!!!!