UH receives 500 Sugar Bowl tickets after giving up 4,000 tickets

 

HONOLULU (AP) – The University of Hawaii will receive at least 500 Sugar Bowl tickets to help address a severe shortfall caused by an earlier decision not to accept its full 17,500-ticket allotment.
The school announced Thursday that Sugar Bowl officials are sending 500 tickets to the Jan. 1 game against Georgia and could make more available next week.
Tickets will be sold to the 352 season-ticket holders who were placed on a waiting list before the school ceased adding to the list Wednesday night because of “excessive demand.” A total of 1,500 tickets have been requested.
Hawaii did not receive its full allotment because its athletic officials were concerned they could not sell them all, so 4,000 tickets were gladly accepted by Georgia.
Athletics director Herman Frazier said Sugar Bowl officials on Saturday wanted a decision immediately to return tickets.
“They pressed us,” he told The Honolulu Advertiser. “They wanted a decision.”
Sugar Bowl spokesman Duane Lewis on Wednesday said it was entirely Hawaii’s decision to take fewer tickets.
With Hawaii quickly selling out its reduced allotment of 13,500 tickets on Tuesday, many angry Warriors’ fans and season-ticket holders were left scrambling to find tickets to the school’s first bowl game outside the Aloha State since the 1992 Holiday Bowl.
Of the 13,500 tickets, only 8,500 made it to season-ticket holders because 5,000 were reserved for the university, travel packages and corporate sponsors.
Tickets were supposed go on sale to the general public Wednesday, but that never happened.
The university is also offering to buy back tickets if any purchasers are unable to make travel arrangements to New Orleans.
Led by quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Colt Brennan, the 10th-ranked Warriors earned a BCS berth to face the fourth-ranked Bulldogs (10-2) after finishing as the nation’s only unbeaten team at 12-0.