Despite Mark Stoops‘ best efforts to reshape the Kentucky football roster and the program’s culture following a disappointing 4-8 season, fans aren’t totally bought in just yet. As you probably could have guessed, season tickets are down, according to Jon Hale of the Herald-Leader.
What’s the early damage? Sales are down 12.7 percent from the number of tickets sold at this stage in 2024, with 75 percent of season ticket holders deciding to renew for the 2025 season compared to return rates no worse than 82 percent the previous three seasons. After back-to-back years selling out its allotment of season tickets at 40K-plus, that number sits at 31,100 as of May 12 — over 2.5K fewer than the spring renewal deadline last year.
While there was no increase in total ticket prices, the season packages of $300-$700 are a bit misleading considering Kentucky will play seven games at Kroger Field in 2025 compared to eight in 2024.
Should the pace remain the same this summer, the Wildcats are trending toward their worst season ticket totals since the transition out of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 when attendance restrictions were first lifted.
Stoops put together a complete roster overhaul this offseason, one that saw 29 transfer portal departures with just 40 players returning from the 4-8 group in 2024 for a retention rate of 47 percent. That group will overlap with 21 high school signees and 24 first-year transfer additions to set up a 2025 team with expectations taking a major hit compared to where things were this time last year. As ticket sales are showing, fans are in a show me, don’t tell me stage of their belief — no matter how motivated the man in charge is after his ‘nobody panic, we’re gonna have a better football team’ offseason send-off in December.
To his credit, he understands he has to win the fanbase back after some obvious slippage last fall.
“Number one, I hear them and I accept the criticisms 100 percent,” he said in a sit-down interview with KSR in March. “I’m not so hard-headed where I’m not going to try to embrace any challenge, any obstacle, to get better. … You could take this or leave it, but I’ve never been as motivated as I am right now. If you know anything about me, I do not like an ass kicking. We didn’t play to our best last year and I can guarantee you since that season was over, when we lost on Saturday against Louisville, our butts were in that office on Sunday and have not stopped since.
His guarantee? He’s going to work to earn back Big Blue Nation’s trust.
“I love this place. I’ve been here 12 years, going on 13, and I promise you — I’ll be honest with you, I’m emotional right now talking about it because my ass wants to get back to the office and get to work to make this team better,” Stoops said. “That’s what I can guarantee you. I can guarantee you that they’re going to play with the same level of competitiveness that we’ve always had, the same chip on our shoulder, the same discipline.
“We’re not going to be perfect, but we’re going to play hard and we’re going to do things right.”
For more on Kentucky’s season ticket sales and the financial toll the decrease could have on the athletic department, read the Herald-Leader’s complete report here.
The post Kentucky football season ticket sales are down following 4-8 finish in 2024 appeared first on On3.