Texas Tech men's basketball fans take aim at Texas’ box office, prompting a sales halt

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AUSTIN, Texas – Saturday marks a first in University of Texas history. The Longhorns are refusing to make money. Capitalism at UT isn’t dead, just taking the day off.

Texas officials have halted all public ticket sales for the Texas-Texas Tech men’s basketball rematch after it became apparent that crafty Red Raiders fans were using a specific online code to buy all the tickets they could through UT’s box office website, according to three people familiar with the situation.

Seats are no longer available for purchase, but the game is not sold out, either. Just how many Tech fans did get tickets is unclear. It won’t be known for sure until tipoff at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The Erwin Center capacity is 16,540.

An athletics department desperate for crowd-control issues at the Erwin Center is suddenly comfortable letting seats go empty.

Texas officials promise that all UT students who hold the “Big Ticket” athletics pass will be allowed in. Nobody will be denied. As usual, students can get a free Whataburger along with free shirts and other assorted goodies. About 2,000 students came to see Kansas, a game that was about 1,800 tickets shy of a sellout, on Feb. 7.

"We encourage thousands of students with the Big Ticket to come,” a Texas team spokesman said. The lower bowl holds 1,200 students. How many seats are being held upstairs? "Thousands," the spokesman said.

Emphasis on plural.

Texas officials stressed again, practically on bended knees, that there will be free food and free shirts for all UT students. 

Tech fans are dying to come to Austin and heckle Chris Beard, the former Red Raiders coach who now leads the Longhorns. “Traitor Power!” is one chant currently being workshopped on Lubbock sports talk radio.

No telling what else Tech football coach Joey McGuire was planning to green-light at the Red Raider Club meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday at the Lustre Pearl cocktail bar on Rainey Street.

In Lubbock, Tech fans blasted Beard on Feb. 1, the night the Horns lost 77-64. Now it’ll be Tech’s first game in Austin since UT athletics director Chris Del Conte stole the Red Raiders’ favorite coach and then nearly wrecked the Big 12 by deciding to leave for the SEC.

Let’s just get this over with, for heaven’s sake. Texas played in Lubbock already. Tech is coming to Austin. It’s time everybody got all this angst out of their system.

“Just really don't view it like that,” Beard said Thursday. “I live in kind of a tight circle. I’ve had some friends and family members say that same kind of word choice. Somebody that I really respect in West Texas that I won't mention by name said something, ‘I'm just glad to kind of get that first one over with.’ I didn't really understand that. 

“All these games are intense. We’re trying to win every game on the schedule. It’s really difficult to do. But I understand the question because of the connection with this game. But personally, I don’t see it like that.”

As he did leading up to Feb. 1, Beard brought the focus back to the game. 

“I see it as a chance to play one of the best teams in the country in mid-to-late February on our home floor, and these are the kind of games we’re going to be in down the stretch here,” Beard said. “This is what our remaining schedule looks like; this is what the Big 12 Tournament looks like. This is, ultimately, what the national tournament looks like.”

Really, Texas officials had no plans to limit attendance for this game, multiple people with knowledge of the situation said. But Tech fans forced their hand, it seems.

For football and men’s basketball games, Texas gives season ticket holders the first right to purchase single-game tickets. For example, if a season ticket holder wants to buy a seat for a friend, that's allowed. There are only 400 seats left for the Texas-Baylor game Feb. 28, for example.

Season ticket holders are given a special code for each game. That code is then used on UT's athletics ticket website, opening the portal to purchase single-game tickets.

Did a Texas fan tell his buddy about the code and it daisy-chained its way to the Tech message boards? Could a Tech fan have bought cheap UT season tickets just to get the code? Maybe. Texas officials have no way of knowing.

But UT officials noticed an abnormal spike in single-game ticket sales, way more than they see for the Kansas or Baylor games. Texas officials did not give specific reasons they attribute the surge to Tech fans, but they were spooked enough to halt sales. Not wanting the Erwin Center to become United Supermarkets Arena South, they decided to shut off ticket sales completely.

On Thursday, tickets were available on StubHub ranging from $115 to $1,235. Those are stratospheric asks for this kind of mid-February Big 12 matchup.

As for the game itself, No. 20 Texas (19-7, 8-5 Big 12) is feeling better about its aggressiveness after Tuesday’s win at Oklahoma. No. 11 Texas Tech (20-6, 9-4) is coming off a stirring home win over No. 7 Baylor.

Asked what lessons could be gleaned from the previous Tech matchup, Texas guard Andrew Jones said, “We move forward.

“You know, everybody knows what happened in Lubbock,” Jones said. “That game didn't define us as long as we continue to get better and continue to grow as a team so we can make a push later in the season.”

On Saturday, expect Texas Tech to push. Hard.

Contact Brian Davis by phone or text at 512-445-3957. Email bdavis@statesman.com or @BDavisAAS.