Penn State wrestling faces chance of sparse crowd for BJC dual

Penn State wrestling is 9-0 (6-0 Big Ten) on the season and coming off a dominant 29-6 win over No. 3 Iowa on Friday night. The Nittany Lions welcome No. 14 Rutgers to town for the annual BJC dual on Monday night. But while the team is rolling and fan fervor around the Nittany Lions is as high as ever, it appears Penn State is struggling to fill up the Bryce Jordan Center for the annual marquee dual.

Penn State wrestling faces chance of empty arena for BJC dual

The BJC dual is typically one of the highlights of the Penn State wrestling season. It gives wrestling fans an opportunity to watch the Nittany Lions in what otherwise would be a difficult ticket in the smaller Rec Hall. Last year, Penn State sold out the Bryce Jordan Center against Iowa, tying the NCAA wrestling indoor attendance record, also set by the Nittany Lions in 2018.

But this season, it appears that tickets are much more abundant than usual.

There are still thousands of tickets available for this year’s dual. You can get tickets in the first row of the upper deck for as low as $8 each from resale on Ticketmaster. There are multiple sections in the upper deck that still have tickets for sale from the university itself for $26.

Furthermore, there are still tickets available in the lower level that can be purchased for $80 each directly from Penn State. However, the resale tickets for the same sections are as low as $20 each. Unfortunately, it looks like there may be many empty seats all over the 15,000-seat Bryce Jordan Center on Monday night.

Why the lack of support for the Nittany Lions?

This really isn’t an indictment on Penn State wrestling fans, or even Nittany Lions fans in general, for that matter. The fact is, State College is a far destination for many to travel for an event starting at 7 p.m. on a weeknight.

An empty Bryce Jordan Center has been a common sight for Penn State men’s and women’s basketball. Often the crowds are better on the weekends, when those from outside the general vicinity of Happy Valley can make the trip.

Usually, the BJC dual is on a Friday night or weekend afternoon, allowing for widespread flocking to State College. Obviously, such an event wouldn’t have been possible this weekend, with a road dual at Iowa on Friday and the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Ultimately, it may have cost Penn State some ticket sales by not setting the Ohio State matchup from February 2 as the date for the BJC Dual. Perhaps Rutgers was chosen to align with the program’s potential 1,000^th win. Maybe it was to wrestle against a new opponent at the BJC. Either way, Cael Sanderson will have his team ready, and another dominant performance should be expected.

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