Despite Syracuse’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference, ticket sales for sporting events are expected to remain relatively similar to what they are now, said Daryl Gross, SU’s athletic director.

Although SU does not have a ‘huge’ contingency of fans that go to away games now, Gross said he is confident the fans who currently travel to Big East away games will continue to do so when the conference officially changes in 2014.

Gross said he thinks that joining the ACC — a conference which covers much more of the Southeast than the Big East does — will expand the fan base to new regions of the United States, as well as cater to some of the many graduates who live outside the Northeast.

‘I think what you’re going to find is when you go to Atlanta, we got a good Atlanta population. When we go to Florida, we got a good Florida population,’ said Gross, adding that SU alumni and fans are located throughout the country.

Last year, when the SU men’s basketball team played South Florida in an away game, 8,000 fans made the trip down to support the team, Gross said. He said he hopes this will continue when SU plays Miami in the future.

Gross said he also expects athletes to receive roughly the same number of tickets to away games for friends and family members as before even though ACC stadiums tend to be larger.

‘Everyone pretty much has the same template on those things,’ he said.

But for many fans, especially those from Upstate and Central New York, traveling to the majority of SU’s away games will be more difficult after the move. Only two schools — Boston College and Pittsburgh — are located within 370 miles of Syracuse.

John Petosa, a professor of practice at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, said moving to the ACC was a good move for SU in terms of stability, revenue and competition. While he has never been one to travel for regular-season games, he attends at least one NCAA event each year, he said.

‘I love college basketball and the idea of bringing back the rivalry between my other alma mater Boston College, renewing the Virginia Tech and Miami games, and creating new rivalries with Duke and North Carolina can only make all of our sports programs stronger,’ he said.

Petosa, an SU men’s basketball season ticket holder since 1987, said he’s not sure there will be many more seats sold after the move, but will bet the attendance record gets broken when Duke or N.C. play in the Carrier Dome for the first time.

In 2009, about 20,000 tickets were sold at the beginning of the SU football season, according to a Sept. 28 article in The Daily Orange. Last year, sales were already in the mid-20,000s at this point.

For students, SU football season tickets cost $100, and for the general public, the season tickets start at $100 and can go up from there depending on where fans want to sit, according to the article. Comparatively, football season tickets at Duke University cost $140, according to the Duke athletics website.

SU fans can also buy the Third-Down Package, which consists of tickets to three home games of their choice for $75. Students can purchase the combo pack, which includes football and basketball season tickets for a discounted rate.

Petosa said he hopes the extra revenue from the move to the ACC will be shared across the entire university, enhancing not only the athletic department, but also all the academic and research programs SU has to offer.

Said Petosa: ‘Maybe this will take some pressure off of the budget process for the school as a whole.’

egsawyer@syr.edu

— Sports Editor Michael Cohen and Asst. News Editor Jon Harris contributed reporting to this article.   

Published on October 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer