ShareThisIt wasn't ever an outright embarrassment, but it came close. At a time when Stanford's brand of football was more entertaining than half the teams in the NFL, too many seats were empty throughout last season at Stanford Stadium.
Nobody ever confused Stanford with such collegiate hotbeds as Knoxville, South Bend or Ann Arbor, but how could you not sell out a 50,000-seat stadium with Andrew Luck commanding Jim Harbaugh's brilliantly creative offense?
From what we're hearing on the Farm, we're about to see a more big-league atmosphere. There was an immediate rush to acquire tickets when Luck announced his intention to return to Stanford, and at last count, the school had sold some 25,000 season tickets -- a 46-percent increase from last season's total.
"I think there's a chance we'll sell out five of our seven home games this year," said a spokesman for the athletic department. "Sometimes it takes time to turn around the habits of the ticket-buying public. Quite often, organizations see their biggest spike in ticket sales the year after a historic season."
It doesn't hurt that Stanford has a fabulous home schedule, including UCLA, Washington and a dynamic trifecta to close out the season: Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame. The schedule frankly makes a mockery of Cal's, which has a couple you wouldn't advertise in neon (Presbyterian and Fresno State), and only one blockbuster (USC, a game that could be moved out of AT&T Park if baseball's Giants make the postseason).
Stanford's marketing department took a fair amount of heat in the wake of last season's paltry attendance, but seriously: Do you really have to pound "Andrew Luck, tons of excitement" into the public's consciousness? It took only a couple of games to establish Stanford as the best football show in town, immeasurably more compelling to the casual fan than anything Cal, the 49ers or Raiders had to offer. The attraction could not have been clearer.
The university did come up with a clever ticket plan called "What's Your Deal," a reference to Harbaugh's feud with former USC coach Pete Carroll, offering fans a chance to package the USC game with two others on the schedule at a discount rate. There's a similar plan in place for this season, known as "Lots of Luck," featuring any one of the final three games along with two others.
There are strong indications, though, that Stanford football is finally in position to sell itself. It's nice to know that all of the home games fall on Saturdays, and that ticket prices are reasonable (as little as $25 for reserved seats in the corners of the stadium, and in the $40-$65 range between the goal lines).
Not so good: the dreaded TBA on game times for UCLA, Colorado, Oregon and Cal. Such details must be settled within 12 days of the game in question, but if you're into long-range planning, with a bunch of kids in tow, there's a crucial distinction between day and night. Join us now in a bitter salute to television.
(E-mail Bruce Jenkins at bjenkins(at)sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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