10,000 Tickets Still Available For This Year’s Sun Bowl Game

There’s just 10 days to go until kickoff of the 78th Hyundai Sun Bowl.

ABC-7 asked game officials Tuesday how ticket sales are going for this year’s matchup between Georgia Tech and Utah.

Sun Bowl officials are quick to admit that this is not last year, with the likes of Notre Dame and Miami playing in El Paso. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be another good year for the Sun Bowl, which for the first time in anyone’s memory falls on a Saturday.

While there may be a bit of a Notre Dame hangover, with the game falling on the weekend this year, many more people will have Saturday off to go to the game. Because of that, Sun Bowl Executive Director Bernie Olivas said more than 40,000 tickets have already been distributed for this year’s game, leaving only about 10,000 to go.

The 40,000 includes 8,000 tickets for which each school is responsible, meaning ticket sales in El Paso have topped well over 20,000 at this point.

Olivas said while overnight stays are important for economic impact, it’s that local support that provides the real anchor for the Sun Bowl. With 10 days to go and the game falling on a Saturday, he’s not ruling out another sellout.

“There are no NFL games on December 31 this year so they went ahead and let us play on Saturday, which is a great boon to us not only locally, but nationally as well,” Olivas said. “I think our ratings will go up tremendously just because it’s on a Saturday, which is nothing but good for the city of El Paso.”

ABC-7 called both Utah and Georgia Tech school officials Tuesday to find out how many tickets have been sold to their fans at this point. Utah said they’ve sold 1,500 tickets and Georgia Tech said they’ve sold close to 4,000, although 2,000 of those will be donated to Fort Bliss soldiers.