Thousands Of Tickets For ‘Texas Vs. Nation’ Game Given Away
by Ken Molestina
EL PASO –There areonlya few days left before the”Texas Versus the Nation” college football all-star game gets underway and some organizers are wondering if El Pasoanswill buy into the game.
Organizers said they’re unsurehow much revenue the event willbring, asmany sponsorshave beengiving away free tickets to get El Pasoans acquainted with it.
Western Refining, the title sponsor, has donated10,000 of those tickets to Fort Bliss soldiers. Officials say another2,000 tickets were given to the city of El Paso for shelling out $200,000 to sponsor the game.
TheEl Paso and Socorro school districts received5,000 tickets each. Both districts will be able to keep 60 percent of proceeds from ticket sales to benefit their athletic programs.
El Paso Mayor John Cook hopes El Pasoans fill up the Sun Bowl for the game.”If the cameras pan to the Sun Bowl and the seats are empty, then that’s the vision that we send out to the rest of the world,” he said.
Many local football fans said many will show up to the game in typical El Paso fashion. “We support football … El Pasoans are football fans,” saidone fan who plans to go to the game. “El Pasoans always show up at the last minute.”
A spokeswoman for the game said they do nothave a figure for ticket sales independent of the 30,000that havealready beendistributed.
Organizers hope the game will become alocalstaple in the long run, especially, considering the city has already committed itself to host the game for the next five years.
