Gary Stokan , president of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic game, N.C. State’s season opener, is a proud NCSU alum who loves his alma mater and the city of Raleigh.
For the moment, the Wolfpack nation loves him back approximately half as much.
While in Greensboro for the ACC Kickoff on the weekend of July 20, Stokan said State fans have purchased about 15,000 tickets out of its 31,500-ticket allotment for the Aug. 31 neutral site game against Tennessee. Fans of the Pack’s SEC counterpart have bought about 26,000 seats. Auburn and Clemson, who are set to play the second of two Kickoff Classic games, have both matched or exceeded that mark too.
“I’ll be brutally honest,” Stokan said. “As an N.C. State guy I’m frankly disappointed in N.C. State’s support right now. It shocks me, frankly, because every time N.C. State played at the old Peach Bowl, they would bring 25,000 people.”
Although the former Wolfpack basketball player has a right to be upset over low ticket sales in what will be a crucial nonconference game for both the Volunteers and Pack, Stokan also has to realize that this is almost entirely a Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic problem rather than a lack of passion within the NCSU football community.
Having been in Raleigh for several years, and after watching his daughter Christie graduate from Tennessee, Stokan is one person who should know that this game doesn’t suit N.C. State fans well at all. With the game being in Atlanta-a seven-hour drive away-on a Friday at 7:30 p.m., students with class and fans with full-time jobs will need some fancy footwork if they want to step inside the Georgia Dome by kickoff. And even if they can go, how about hotel costs and 14 hours worth of gas?
No offense to Atlanta-which is a lovely city and a fantastic place to watch a college football game-but if you’re going to spend the traveling money to go see State play elsewhere, how about sitting under an umbrella on South Beach prior to the Pack’s late-September ACC opener against Miami? Or you could go to Death Valley in November for what could end up being a season-defining game at Clemson. And for the perpetual optimist, you can even save up your cash for a much more practical escapade over to Charlotte for the ACC Championship Game.
With Tennessee’s campus being just a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Atlanta, the Friday night kickoff is not nearly as much of an obstacle for them. Then, too, Tennessee plays in front of 94,000 people every home game and is (like virtually every SEC school) an institution that loves football more than any other sport.
State will most likely climb its way up to somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 tickets for next month’s opener, but Stokan can’t talk much when the game is not on a Saturday where fans have more reasonable access to make the trip.
