Ticket demand high for matchup with Knights
Football finally returns to South Florida this weekend. The NFL regular season is here, the college fooball season is rolling, and the most expensive ticket in town is in Boca Raton.
As of about noon on Friday, the cheapest tickets for the Miami Dolphins’ opener at home against the Baltimore Ravens are more than $50 cheaper than the cheapest to get into the FAU’s meeting with No. 18 Central Florida.
To get into Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, tickets will run you at least $44, according to SeatGeek, and plenty are available in the price range. To get into FAU Stadium on Saturday, tickets cost at least $114 and far fewer are available, albeit for a game a day earlier.
The Dolphins, of course, spent the past week unloading just about every veteran of note from an already suspect roster. While management denies it is tanking to land a quarterback high in the 2019 NFL Draft, the Dolphins are projected by virtually every prognosticator to be the worst team in the NFL.
Not even the Ravens, a playoff team a year ago, can make this seasonopening matchup appealing across South Florida.
The Owls, on the other hand, put up a good fight on the road against No. 5 Ohio State last week. After falling behind by 28 points in the first quarter, FAU (0-1) slowed down Ohio State and lost 45-21, outscoring the Buckeyes 21-17 across the final three quarters, and now has a primetime matchup coming up against one of the best teams in the country.
The uptick in interest might have more to do with the visitor. The Owls, after all, missed out on a bowl game in 2018 and coach Lane Kiffin can only drum up so much excitement.
UCF, however, finished the regular season last year as the highest ranked team in Florida and opened its 2019 season with a 62-0 rout of Florida A&M in Orlando. The Knights, who went undefeated in 2017, have won 26 of their past 27 games.