Ohio State football’s season-ticket sales back to pre-pandemic levels
Season-ticket sales for Ohio State football games have returned to prepandemic levels, according to figures provided to The Dispatch on Friday.
The school has sold 53,606 season tickets to the general public and to faculty and staff for the upcoming 2022 season, associate athletic director for ticketing and premium seating Brett Scarbrough said in an email.
It's the first time Ohio State has sold more than 50,000 non-student season tickets since COVID-19 began impacting attendance two years ago and is the most sold since selling 53,926 in 2017.
The Buckeyes have an attractive upcoming home schedule for fans next fall, opening up against Notre Dame and ending with their rivalry game versus Michigan on Thanksgiving weekend.
Ohio State has only twice ever hosted Notre Dame, and The Game has not been played in Columbus since 2018 after it was canceled two years ago amid an outbreak of coronavirus cases within the Wolverines' program.
The slate also includes crossover games against Big Ten West schools such as Iowa and Wisconsin, as well as Arkansas State, Toledo, Rutgers and Indiana. It's the first time since 2012 that the Buckeyes will hold eight games in a season at Ohio Stadium.
Ohio State began season-ticket renewals and new season-ticket sales last November.
Through Thursday, the renewal rate had reached 86%, equating to 37,333 season tickets. The deadline for renewals was on March 1, but Scarbrough said the ticket office has been contacting previous season-ticket holders to encourage them to re-up in recent weeks.
The school has also sold 16,273 new season tickets to bring the base of season-ticket holders above 50,000.
This is the first year that a majority of season-ticket holders are required to make annual seat contributions for the right to purchase tickets in certain locations at the stadium.
The per-seat contributions, which range from $100 to $1,500 depending on location, replace previous forms of giving that required season-ticket holders to pay membership fees to the Buckeye Club or the President's Club.
All of the seat contributions will go toward the Buckeye Club, which funds scholarships for the 36 varsity sports teams.
But school officials have said that a swath of seats would become more affordable under the new pricing model. Most of the required seat contributions are less than $250 and none are required for some sections in the upper deck.
The cost of the lowest-priced season ticket also dropped more than 20%.
The window for sales ahead of last season was much smaller for Ohio State. Due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic, it didn't begin the renewal period or new sales until June, only three months before the season started. The school ultimately sold 43,664 season tickets in 2021.
No spectators were allowed at games across the Big Ten during the shortened season in 2020.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at jkaufman@dispatch.com or on Twitter @joeyrkaufman.