Carolina is missing the marketing mark with football tickets.

UNC at Notre Dame 042

Notre Dame is coming to Kenan Stadium in 2017. (Photo by Todd Melet)

I was purchasing season tickets this week, and a very nice young man name Brendan reminded me that by buying them I would have first right of refusal to have the same tickets, or upgrade, in 2017. And you know, he said, Notre Dame is coming next season.

No, I didn’t know. It’s hard enough keeping up with the 2016 schedule that starts Saturday night against Georgia, but I thanked Brendan for the information and came away with two reactions.

One, this season’s tickets are now a little more valuable and why isn’t UNC marketing the snot out of the first right of refusal and Notre Dame next fall. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, everybody wants to see the Fighting Irish in person, and I have not heard that mentioned in any season ticket promos or advertising. Maybe I missed it, but if it were plastered around like it should be, I wouldn’t have.

Just how many season tickets Carolina has sold is as well kept a secret as Brexit before it broke in Britain. Clearly, there are still season tickets left in some of the categories you find on the Goheels.com tickets page. Some seasons are $300 and some $220, depending on their locations at Kenan, which are mapped out by color code. But there are also mini-season ticket plans (I think for three of the six home games) and something called combo packs, which is two tickets to one game with $5 vouchers for concessions and merchandise.

Right now, before the Tar Heels play two winnable, or losable, games away from Kenan, the JMU home opener is looking like one of those Labor Day yawners of yore, when Carolina winds up selling tickets for 10 bucks just to get some fannies in the seats and we don’t see so much embarrassing aluminum from the visiting side benches.

My guess is that lots of people go to the UNC online ticket pages but wind up figuring they can score cheapo seats out front for JMU and worry about the next games later. But if Carolina shouted from the mountain top, BUY SEASON TICKETS THIS YEAR AND YOU’RE GUARANTEED TO SEE NOTRE DAME NEXT OCTOBER 7, they would sell out the remaining lot. Fast. Or, at least, faster.

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