I’ve been a Hokie club member and ticket holder for 20 years and I have never seen so much interest, confusion and downright misunderstanding! The fallout of our most successful season has produced a situation of hard choices for the Virginia Tech Athletic Department (VTAD). Fortunately the VTAD had a plan for the eventuality of sold out season tickets. It just occurred years before it was expected.

The Football message board at HokieCentral has been full of questions and comments concerning Tickets, Seating and Parking the past month. I am writing this article to put in one place some answers to those questions. The source for my information is the VTAD, the Virginia Tech Athletic Fund (VTAF), the Virginia Tech Athletic Ticket Office (VTTO) and our friends at the Tidewater Hokie Club chapter (http://tidewaterhokieclub.exis.net).

The Hokie Club surpassed the 10,000-member mark in December 1999. You would figure that most Hokie Club members would want football season tickets. If each member were to get 4…well you are a Tech fan so I know you can do the math.

Lane stadium will supposedly hold 53,879 fans by August 27, 2000. That doesn’t leave many tickets for those not belonging to the Hokie Club. Complicating the situation for the VTAD is the fact that there are a great many of season ticket holders who are not members of the Hokie Club.

Here is the 2000 ticket situation, per VTTO:

It looks pretty certain that if you aren’t a Hokie Club member you probably won’t get new season tickets this year. It may be that the lower Hokie Club level members that are trying to get season tickets for the first time will not be accommodated. Season Tickets cost $203.00 each and include the Georgia Tech – BCA game on August 27. Priority for who will get 2000 Season Tickets this year is as follows:

1. 1999 Season Ticket Holders
2. Hokie Club members by Point Priority
3. Season Ticket Holders (that are not Hokie Club Members) and want more tickets
4. General Public

I don’t think VTTO will get by #2. Your level of giving and lots of other factors define your Point Priority. Here is a great explanation from the Tidewater Hokies: http://tidewaterhokieclub.exis.net/PointPriority.htm.

The approximate 4,000 season seats available will go to the Hokie Club members that are getting new season tickets. You may be able to buy individual tickets to the Georgia Tech, Akron, Rutgers, Temple or Pittsburgh games. I would put my order in today though…[VTTO: 1-800-VA TECH4 (828-3244)]. If you are renewing your season tickets, DO NOT SEND THE RENEWAL FORM IN LATE. May 1, 2000 is the key date.

First off, if you had season tickets last year and want to keep the same seats, you will. No change there this year. If you want to change seats, then you can ask to be relocated to other seats. Your Point Priority will come into play. The more you gave, the better the seats you will get. You will also be in the mix with new season ticket holders in the Hokie Club.

The seats up for grabs are those few seats given up by last years season ticket holders and any new seats made available for season tickets. Bottom line: If you are a Golden Hokie or above you might get better seats. Silver Hokies and below will be scrambling for 20-yard line or worse tickets. If you are a new season ticket holder and are below the Golden Hokie level, you can expect to be no better than the 15-yard line. Here is a picture of where the seats are:

So what seats are available? Good question! The VTTO doesn’t know yet who is not going to renew their tickets. It does look like the Family Plan tickets will now be available for Season Ticket seating. Again the higher the Point Priority level the better the seats. Generally if you are only looking for 2 season tickets together you will get better seats than if you are looking for 4 season tickets.

Is there going to be a general seating reshuffling after this year? The VTTO says there are no plans for change in 2001. That’s as far in the future as they will talk about. When the stadium expansion is completed in 2002/2003 there is talk of a reshuffle. Based on Point Priority of course!

In 1999 the VTAD began charging $5.00 a game for parking. Season ticket holders could get a one game discount by paying for all the games in advance. This season the "deal" is still a one game discount. Pay $30 for a parking pass to 7 games.

Hokie Club members will be assigned a lot based on their giving level. Silver Hokies and up will get an assigned parking space based (all together now) on their Point Priority. With the large influx of Silver and Golden Hokies this past year, parking will not be as convenient for many Hokie club members.

The Silver and up Hokie Club members will have their assigned parking in Lots 1, 2, 3 & 4. Lot 5 MAY have Silver Hokies in it and will contain all the Bronze Hokies and the top ranked Orange & Maroon Hokies. Lot 6 will contain Orange & Maroon and Hokie Club members. Lot 9 & 10 will be used as Hokie Club Overflow. All those without an assigned spot can get their space on a first come first served basis each game.

If you want to bring a RV, there will be 18 RV spots in Lot 3 (based on Point Priority!). The rest will park in I Lot. If you want to park with some friends in an assigned spot you can request to do that and you will get the spots according to the lowest Point Priority.

I hope the above will answer some of your questions about this season. The best bet is to give as much as you can, and if you are lucky enough to have good seats don’t give them up or decrease your donations. Those that have long time season tickets and don’t contribute may be in for an unpleasant surprise, but it won’t be this year. Feel free to put me as beneficiary in your will of your season ticket