Aggies pushing hoops tickets
NMSU out to build on 28-win season
LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State is trying to build on the momentum of a record-breaking men’s basketball season last season at the box office.
Even though coach Paul Weir left for New Mexico, replaced by Chris Jans, NMSU is off to a good start , getting 34 percent of last season’s season-ticket base to renew during the spring.
NMSU started men’s basketball season tickets early following the Aggies’ program-record 28 wins last season and fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in the past six years. NMSU also offered a promotion in which fans who renewed, or bought new season tickets, between April 3 and July 1 would receive a replica Western Athletic Conference championship ring.
“Historically, Las Cruces does not purchase season tickets early,” NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia said. “It’s late, it’s the week of the season home opener. This is a nice deal. We did it right after the season to try to get momentum. We certainly don’t want to step on the football season ticket campaign. But we obviously didn’t anticipate a new coach and things like that, which kind of set us back from a handson standpoint. We only have a
few people and we spent so much energy on a men’s and a women’s (basketball head coaching) search, we didn’t have a hands on with it as much as we liked.
“But to have 33 percent is pretty good and I know they are still coming in. I know we’re turning our focus to football renewals right after July 4.”
The promotion was put in place prior to Weir leaving and it’s unclear if the coaching change had any affect on season-ticket renewals.
“I think what really is driving it is the great season and the ring giveaway,” Moccia said. “People just heard about it, but that ring is really cool. It’s not a cheap plastic piece of junk. It actually has some weight to it and it’s a great piece you can display at the office or at home or the kids can wear it. I think having a premium item really helped, as did a great season.”
NMSU sold 1,975 season tickets last season and season ticket sales have decreased every year since 2006-07. But NMSU had solid single-game ticket revenues last season as NMSU budgeted a projected ticket-sale revenue (season and single game combined) of $580,000 for last season for men’s basketball, but had an actual revenue of $715,753. NMSU has budgeted a projected ticketsale revenue for $717,000 for fiscal year 2018 for men’s basketball.
NMSU games had an average attendance of 4,886 last season, up from 4,768 in 2015-16.
But the focus will be on season tickets this fall. Among the opponents on the 2017-18 home schedule for NMSU will be New Mexico and Weir’s return to the Pan American Center on Nov. 17, UTEP (Nov. 25), Colorado State and the University of San Diego.
“Season tickets are the hedge against bad weather or a bad start to a season,” Moccia said. “It’s so critical for revenue generation. We love single-game revenues when they are high, but we really need to focus on season tickets, especially for basketball and football.”