Super Regional tickets are hard to come by for WVU fans
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — This weekend is big for West Virginia baseball. The Mountaineers are headed to their first ever Super Regional. They need two more wins to punch their ticket to the College World Series.
West Virginia baseball is certainly the talk of the state. It's an exciting time to be a Mountaineer fan.
But how do you go about getting tickets? And how much are you willing to pay?
"Winning here means a lot to a lot of people because we are not blessed with pro teams in our state," WVU baseball head coach Randy Mazey said. "We don't have NHL, NBA or Major League Baseball. It's us and Marshall as the only two Division I schools."
The Super Regional is big deal but tickets are hard to come by. Eyewitness News engineer Jack Gilbert is a WVU baseball season ticket holder and getting access to tickets hasn't been easy and they can be expensive.
"Checking through WVU, no tickets are available mainly for season ticket holders," Gilbert said. "Family is able to get tickets but no fans really, unless you go through the secondary market."
WVU was allotted only 600 tickets. Hurricane's Chad Prather is one of the select few to purchase those tickets and he's ready to cheer on his Mountaineers.
"WVU sent out an email basically saying that they had a very limited amount of tickets and if you have interest, fill out this form with your credit card information and if you are fortunate enough to get the tickets, we'll charge your credit card and send it to you electronically," Prather explained. "All of that took about 24 hours and I was notified today that I had received them."
It's a road game for West Virginia. They'll face the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Boshamer Stadium has a listed capacity of 4,100 with room for overflow crowds of more than 5,000 so if you don't already have a ticket, finding one could get costly when you add up the ticket prices and handling fees.
"Just checking on Stub Hub, they're roughly $250 a piece, you know, per game," Gilbert said. "That's out of a lot of people's league for baseball games."
No matter how many West Virginia fans make it to the game, players and coaches know fans are behind their team.
"To win a regional like this, we represent a ton of people, not just our university and our community, but 1.8 million people in the state of West Virginia I know are really, really proud of all these guys right now and all they've accomplished," Mazey said.
When WVU faced UNC in the Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, Gold and Blue Nation had an overwhelming presence at Bank of America Stadium. Mountaineers' fans want to replicate the same atmosphere this weekend.
"The whole state gets behind the university," Prather said. "Football, baseball, basketball, really all the sports and for this to be coach Mazey's very last year coaching, it's a big deal and you feel the team rallying behind that and you certainly want to be a part of that history because it's never happened.
The best of three series starts Friday. For those without tickets, you need to act quickly before games are sold out and prices skyrocket. Fans also have to decide on purchasing an individual ticket, or a series pass which costs more.
"You know, do I throw 500 bucks in the pot, plus hotel, gas and everything to go down to see West Virginia playing the first Super Regional?" Gilbert asked. "If they win that then they go to the College World Series and I'm not missing the College World Series."