MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU has partnered with IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions (IMGTS) to sell tickets for the school’s athletic events.
The university, which released a Request for Proposals (RFP) in March, made the announcement June 18.
IMG Learfield sells more tickets to university athletic events than any other outbound ticket sales company. The operation will handle ticket sales for all WVU sports, managed onsite by General Manager Robert Kristiniak. He joins IMGTS from a post as assistant athletic director for sales and service at University of California-Berkeley.
According to WVU’s RFP, the university generates more than $16 million annually in ticket sales, with men’s basketball and football earning the bulk of that revenue. While those remain WVU’s two most-watched sports, attendance has dropped for football and men’s basketball games in recent years.
The football team drew 317,459 fans in 2013 — a decline of 18.9 percent from the team’s 2012 total (391,412) and a decrease of 21.9 percent from 2008 (406,593).
WVU’s men’s basketball team saw similar declines in attendance in recent years. WVU averaged more than 167,000 fans per season from 2008-’11, but slightly more than 138,000 fans in 2012 and 2013. This past year’s per-game attendance (8,575) was the lowest under seven-year head coach Bob Huggins.