ARLINGTON, Texas — More than 5,000 BYU fans packed into Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers, on Friday night for the BYU Fan Fest — picking up T-shirts, playing carnival games, and standing in absurdly long lines for photos with SportsNation’s Spencer Linton.
Most of them made the trip on short notice as No. 11 BYU only clinched its spot in the Big 12 Championship game last Friday, and it wasn’t cheap.
Some families told the Daily Universe the combination of flights, game tickets, rentals, hotels, and everything else easily cleared anywhere from $2,500 to the $5,000 mark.
Terry and Glinda Anderson of American Fork, Utah, travelled on a moment’s notice in hopes of witnessing a historic moment in this program’s history.
When asked what they paid for their tickets to the game, they traded sarcastic, exasperated looks to each other before answering, “$720 per ticket, so just over $3,000 for the family.”
Yes, those are lower-level seats. But thousands of dollars for a decent view is a completely different story.
Nosebleed seats are still around $95, which on the surface does not appear all that expensive, but in an 80,000-seat stadium, that’s basically like watching the game off the scoreboard.
The cost is steep, but this is normal for BYU’s fan base. They travel. They invest. And when there’s a chance to witness a program-defining win, they show up by the tens of thousands.