Tickets on sale for Griz home playoff game

By BETSY COHEN Missoulian | Posted: Monday, December 5, 2011 12:32 am

MISSOULA — Here’s what you need to know if you want to attend Friday night’s FCS quarterfinal football game between the fifth-ranked University of Montana Grizzlies and the second-ranked Northern Iowa Panthers.
The Adams Center Box Office in Missoula will be selling tickets and will be open from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. today and Tuesday, and from 8:30 a.m. through halftime during the Grizzly basketball games on Wednesday and Thursday, which is around 8 p.m., said Chuck Maes, UM associate athletic director for internal operations and events.
Tickets are $26 each plus a $5 fee per order for purchases made by phone or fax.
Students and season-ticket holders who have pre-order playoff tickets have until Tuesday at 6 p.m. to purchase from the block of tickets reserved for them, and what is not sold after that will be available for purchase to the general public.
Ticket price for students is $5 and $10 for a student guest, Maes said. If students don’t purchase tickets by Tuesday evening but still want to get a ticket later in the week, those students will have to pay $26 each.
Since Saturday evening, season-ticket holders have stepped forward by the thousands to purchase their playoff tickets, Maes said.
By late Sunday afternoon, Maes estimated that about 8,000 of the 17,000 season-ticket holders already had their Friday tickets.
There are about 1,500 tickets available to the general public, and any tickets that free up on Tuesday will be for sale atgriztix.com shortly before midnight Tuesday.
In the meantime, the athletic department is presenting a plan to UM President Royce Engstrom on Monday that outlines when football fans can start arriving on campus to set up tailgate parties, park their RV’s and fill up parking lots.
Friday is the last day of classes before final exams, Maes said.
“We need to be sensitive to what students are all going through at this time in the semester, yet we still need to get 25,000 people on campus for the game and in their seats by 6 p.m.,” he said. “As soon as we get information about parking, we will get that information out to the media as soon as possible.
“Right now we are hoping to be ready to go at 3 p.m. Friday —but that’s pending university approval.”