Sooners softball has become a hot ticket

NORMAN — Patty Gasso wasn’t ever sure she’d see it in her career.

Lines of fans forming nearly two hours before the game at Marita Hynes Field and autograph lines lasting almost an hour and a half afterward.

With its increased visibility on television, softball is more popular than ever before, and with back-to-back national titles, the Sooners are the pinnacle of their surging sport.

“When we are on the field, whether we’re on

TV or not, we want to give our heart and soul so a fan can feel what we’re

doing,” Gasso said. “And it captures them.

“There’s a lot of new softball fans. Maybe at BJ’s having dinner, looking up and watching, getting caught up in the game and then next thing you know, they’re telling me, ‘I watched you at a bar and now I’m seeing it in person.’”

The No. 3 Sooners are in high demand — and the ticket prices show it.

Wednesday’s game against Oklahoma State in Norman has been sold out through the school for months, and on the secondary market, tickets are going for more than triple face value.

As of Tuesday night, a handful of general admission tickets were available on Stub-Hub.

The cheapest was $33, while the most expensive was listed at $42.18.

When purchased through the school, single game general admission tickets are just $10.

Just 11 tickets are left for the Saturday night series finale.

One ticket is listed at $56, while the other 10 are going for $60.

Part of that demand, OU senior associate athletic director Kenny Mossman believes, was created when Oklahoma began officially announcing sellouts.

On March 5, the OU softball account announced that the May 5 Bedlam game was sold out. Since then, all but two of OU’s Big 12 home games sold out in advance.

“We saw an uptick in the sales,” Mossman said. “I think people started to figure out, I may not get the game that I want, but I’m going to take the game that I can get. Once those sellouts started to happen, and we announced them, people started looking for the other games. It perpetuates itself to selling out the rest of the season.”

Oklahoma’s aggressive push to pack the stadium began during OU’s 2017 Women’s College World Series run.

The night the Sooners won the title, OU’s ticket office began accepting deposits on 2018 season tickets.

With the fan base buzzing from the 2017 title and the promise of another successful season in 2018 with the return of nearly every player, season ticket purchases sky rocketed.

Most years, OU sells about 500 season tickets, Mossman said. During the post-WCWS push, the Sooners sold about 200 more.

A reserved seat season ticket went for $250, while a season general admission ticket cost fans $150.

By the start of the season, over 700 tickets were sold for the stadium that only holds 1,378 people.

“When you’re selling over half your facility as a season ticket, you’re in a good spot,” Mossman said.

Most years, OU adds temporary bleachers along the first and third baselines when the Sooners near the end of the regular season.

The extra seats give the stadium up to a capacity of just more than 1,700.

But with the spike in season ticket sales, OU made the decision to add the bleachers before the season even started.

Marita Hynes Field is up for a renovation in the near future.

There isn’t a timeline for the upgrades, and OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said the program is still working to raise the estimated $15 million to make the changes.

Under a proposed master plan, Marita Hynes’ capacity would increase from 1,378 to 2,566, and the seat demand and passion from fans were a part of the reason for the updates.

“They’re very accessible, unlike probably a lot of sports,” Gasso said of her team. “We walk right into fan crowds. So they have made a lot of good friends. They have touched a lot of hearts, a lot of people. I think people come here because they really get pleasure or enjoyment or some of their hearts are very filled when they watch the style of play.”

While Gasso has seen many things change in recent years with the surge in her team’s popularity, there’s still one thing she hasn’t seen — but it might not be too far off.

“When I see someone scalping,” Gasso said with a laugh, “then I’ll go “Woooow, someone please take a picture.