Gamecocks Offer Seats for Soldiers

Sept. 3, 2014

South Carolina is ramping up its efforts to thank members of the United States military with the help of Gamecock fans and donors. The “Seats for Soldiers” program was recently launched to allow fans to purchase football tickets at a discounted rate to be used by members of the military and their families for the game against Furman on October 18.

“It’s something we take very seriously to just say ‘thank you’ in a very small way for all that they do for us and our freedoms,” said Dan Stahl, general manager with IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions for the University of South Carolina property. “It’s great to let them have that release and have fun on a Saturday by enjoying some Gamecock football.”

The “Seats for Soldiers” program allows donors to buy the tickets for the group rate of only $25 apiece, and they hope to have a least 1,500 seats purchased for the military families. IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions has done something similar at institutions such as Penn State and Duke University.

“It’s something we take very seriously to just say ‘thank you’ in a very small way for all that they do for us and our freedoms.” Dan Stahl

“Penn State was able to host over 2,000 people through their `Seats for Soldiers’ program,” Stahl said. “So if we can do that, we’d be affecting so many lives by allowing them to attend a game that normally they probably wouldn’t be able to attend. Most of the fans we speak to about the program are willing to donate one or two tickets, and I’m sure there will be a few people out there who will want to donate well above that number.”

The program was started in the summer and has already resulted in the sale of a few hundred tickets for the military families. There will be a bigger push over the next several weeks in the hopes of reaching their goal. South Carolina also hosts the military appreciation day for the game against South Alabama on November 22, but Stahl indicated they wanted to find a way to help more military families.

“A lot of times we can only donate so many tickets due to availability,” Stahl said. “So we wanted to do more. We’ll seat all of the military families together, and it should make for a nice visual in the stands too. We also ran a very similar program last year with the South Carolina basketball team, called `Hoops for the Holidays,’ and it worked very well, so we thought we should try it for football as well.”

The reaction from donors has been that of appreciation for the service and sacrifice members of the military and their families make in order to keep the United States safe.

Anyone interested in purchasing tickets for members of the military and their families may call the IMG Learfield group sales line at 803.777.8850, or print the page on the Ticket Office web site.