A record-setting crowd will be in attendance when Seton Hall hosts the Syracuse Orange on Feb. 16. For the first time in the six-year history of the building the upper levels will be opened up to fans. It will also be the last regular season meeting between these two founding members of the Big East Conference.
"We have never, until the Syracuse game, sold out a game this far in advance," Associate Athletic Director Bryan Felt said. "We have probably sold out close to 10 games in our 5 years at the Prudential Center, but we have always sold them out the day before or that morning."
With the lower bowl selling out around Dec. 28, the athletic department saw an opportunity to do something they have never done before.
Felt, along with Athletic Director Patrick Lyons and Director of Ticket operations Jim Semerad, discussed their situation and after a meeting with the Prudential Center management, decided they should life some of the curtains at "The Rock."
"We liked it because it set the right atmosphere for what we wanted for our home games," Felt said of the curtains. "But we know with more than a month to go people are going to want to go to this game. Our fans tend to always wait for the last minute to go to these games."
The entire second level will not be open, as only the 100 level sections on the sides are going to be sold in order to keep a good atmosphere in the building along with looking good on TV. Not only are the sections available to the public but two sections were reserved for an extra student section in the sections closest to the normal sections.
Besides the Seton Hall fans coming out to see the currently ranked No. 9 Orange this will also be the last Big East regular season game for Syracuse in the New York City area. Known to sell out arenas in the area, especially Madison Square Garden, Felt acknowledged that he expects a large number of Syracuse fans to be in attendance.
"I'm expecting them to come out in droves again," Felt said. "That's why I stressed so much to our fans, we have to step up here. We don't want this to be their home court advantage. At the same time we can't stop them from buying."
As to try an entice more Pirate fans to come, emails and phone calls were sent out to Seton Hall alumni to get them to purchase these newly available tickets at a discounted price from the general public.
"This can be a really great college basketball atmosphere," Felt said. "It's a Saturday night at 8:00, in primetime. It's a great time to have a game."
Currently 12,260 tickets have been sold to the game according to Felt which will easily surpass the 9,800 which is the normal capacity for Seton Hall home games.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at Stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu.
