SHOWDOWN: Tickets become a premium for Knights-Eagles matchup

By TIM GAYLE

It’s the hottest ticket in town.

Admittance to Friday’s Catholic-Montgomery Academy game is proving to be a difficult ticket to secure as well, with severe social distancing restrictions leading to fans trying to tap into their opponents’ ticket allotments.

Tickets to Friday’s 3A semifinal matchup are only sold through GoFan, a digital ticketing outlet, which provides a unique code to each school for private sale of tickets to players’ parents, a code that was apparently compromised by fans of both schools. 

Athletic directors and headmasters at both schools are scrambling to make sure tickets are purchased and secured for their respective players’ parents in the wake of unprecedented demand coupled with unprecedented restrictions. 

“There’s nothing really for me to comment on,” Montgomery Academy athletic director and head football coach Robert Johnson said. “We’re going to get it all handled and it’s going to be right.”

Seating at McLemore Field is limited to 33 percent capacity (1,187 fans) because of COVID restrictions. Those tickets are divided among Montgomery Academy (831) and Catholic (356) fans, with no real opportunity for high school football fans to purchase the tickets.

And as Catholic coach Aubrey Blackwell pointed out, 356 tickets doesn’t begin to address the needs of the Catholic fans, meaning the students will be denied an opportunity to cheer in person at the school’s first semifinal appearance since 1989.

“With the 356 we’re allotted, that will get me (195 tickets allotted for) three family members for all my football, which is 65 people; a 62-member band; and a 21-member cheerleading squad,” Blackwell said. “That’s not all of my parents. Not every household has just two parents; a lot of them have four. By the time you go through that, we won’t have any students there and families that will have to leave brothers and sisters home with babysitters.

“It is MA’s call, it’s their decision and we’ve got to respect their decision.”

Blackwell and Catholic athletic director Daniel Veres spent the weekend trying to convince MA officials to move the game to Cramton Bowl, where the numbers are much more favorable. Even with COVID restrictions, 6,369 fans can attend the game – 4,458 for the home team (Montgomery Academy) and 1,911 for Catholic. 

“If it’s sold out, we’re going to turn $14,000-$15,500 each in revenue,” Blackwell said. “If it’s at their place, we’ll get roughly $3,500. That’s a tough pill to swallow when in a COVID year you’re already down revenue and haven’t had the gates you needed during the season. You have an opportunity to make up the ground and you lose it.”

Catholic played its season opener against Pike Road at Cramton Bowl as part of the AHSAA Kickoff Classic and the more athletic Knights would thrive on the artificial surface, Johnson said. 

“They’ve already played a game at Cramton Bowl,” Johnson said. “I’m not about to give them the home-field advantage. They’ve played there and we haven’t, so that’s a big advantage.”

Blackwell continued to emphasize the number of high school football fans that would like to see the game and won’t be able to because of COVID restrictions.

“It has nothing to do with the turf,” he said. “This is the second time in Catholic history that we’re in a semifinal game and 356 people are going to get to see it. All of our students are going to be at home. I hate it for our school.

“They get 831 tickets. All of their students will be able to be there. Family members will be there. It isn’t a big deal to them but for us, when we only get 356, it becomes a community changer for us.”