Tickets still available for Saturday's Oregon State game

After two hours under the sweltering Texas sun, sophomore speech pathology major Lacey Gardell slowly moved forward in a line wrapping around the parking lot of TCU's Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. She was hot, tired and frustrated but stayed in the line for another hour hoping to procure the best seats available for Saturday's Cowboys Classic against the Oregon State University Beavers at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

Tickets were made available online to students for $35 from August 21-25 but due to the overwhelming amount of student interest, TCU requested additional student tickets.

"I ordered my ticket the day they went on sale to make sure I got one," Gardell said. "Not only is it the season opener, it's at Cowboys Stadium."

Sean Conner, the director of ticket operations at the university said the first three levels of seating at Cowboys Stadium, which has a total capacity of over 80,000, are being made available for Saturday's game. As of Wednesday, ticket sales were expected to reach over 40,000 and student ticket sales for TCU were nearing 4,000.

"I knew we would have a great turnout from the student body," Conner said.

Although student interest exceeded the original allotment of student tickets, Conner said the number of student tickets sold did not exceed his expectations.

"We've had tremendous student support over the last few years," Conner said. "The success that Coach Patterson and the team have had the students are extremely supportive and interested in watching the games."

Director of Athletics Media Relations Mark Cohen said the community helped break previous ticket sales records for Saturday's game, as well as season ticket sales.

"Thanks to the TCU community and Fort Worth community...we've shattered the previous mark in season ticket sales. It does not go unnoticed," Cohen said. "It's incredibly rewarding...to know that we have that kind of support from the student body."

"We're expecting 40,000 plus for the game," Conner said. "It's definitely expected to look full and is expected to be about 90 percent purple."

The TCU ticket office no longer has public tickets available for Saturday's game. All public tickets must be purchased in person at Cowboys Stadium or online at the ticketmaster.com website according to the TCU ticket office.

Lower level seats are still available according to ticketmaster.com, and listed prices ranged from over $160 to a little over $53.