Maryland Schedules Irish; Leverages Ticket Sales
The Maryland Terrapins announced an “almost home” date with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame yesterday and also announced a season ticket sales driver attached to the game.
The matchup between Notre Dame and Maryland will take place on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at FedEx Field in Washington, DC. It’s almost a home game for the Terps. It’s the second time in history that the two teams will face each other and for the first time, Maryland will play a game at FedEx Field. The first time the Terps played the Irish was in 2002, Coach Ralph Friedgen’s second season at Maryland. The game was played in East Rutherford, NJ and the the #21 ranked Terrapins fell 22-0.
The game is due to be televised in prime time on NBC as part of Notre Dame’s package with the network. Because Notre Dame negotiated the venue and set up the game, Notre Dame is offically the home team for the contest. Maryland still has seven home games on the schedule for 2011, so Terps fans will only have four true road games next season.
Holding the game at FedEx Field fits Notre Dame’s M.O. of scheduling “nationally” by playing neutral sites games in different parts of the country, thereby keeping up their “national profile”. It doesn’t hurt that the game looks winnable for the Irish, especially considering that new coach Mike Kelly will be in his second year with the program.
The scheduling of the game is a win for the Maryland program as well. The game against Notre Dame gives them a national television audience and a game against a high profile team. It’s a little out of Maryland’s comfort zone, since Maryland typically schedules regional rivals like Navy and West Virginia out-of-conference, along with a game against a lesser team such as Morgan State, who is on the Terps’ schedule in 2010.
The ticket sales angle is also a positive for the Maryland program. In order to leverage higher season ticket sales for 2010 and 2011, Maryland is tying priority seating for the Notre Dame game into the purchase of season ticket packages for the next two seasons. Smart programs do this to increase sales and attendance. That’s nothing new.