'We've got about 3,000 tickets to move before Saturday'

EUGENE, Ore. - Thousands of Duck football tickets remain unsold ahead of Saturday's season opener, putting the streak of sold out games at Autzen Stadium in jeopardy.

The University of Oregon athletic department turned to online discount deal website Groupon to offer ticket packages. The deal went live Tuesday and had sold over 60 packages by early afternoon.

"We've got about 3,000 tickets to move before Saturday," said Craig Pintens with UO athletics, "and we think our fans will rally and respond."

The deal offers two tickets and two sodas for $110, a $154 value.

At stake: the football team's streak for selling out Autzen.

"We've sold out 82 straight games, and we have tremendous fan support," Pintens said. "We have one of the best home field advantages in college football, and we're looking forward to hopefully selling out number 83."

Pintens said the sales pace doesn't indicate support for the team has gone down, although ticket prices have gone up.

It's more a question of proximity.

Arkansas State fans aren't making the trek west for the game, which airs nationally on ESPN.

"Normally we have a 2,000 seat visiting section and they're only bringing about 300 people," Pintens said.

And school doesn't start for several more weeks, leaving 1,000 student tickets up for grabs.

The extra tickets means fans didn't need to run a race to snap up tickets.

"We decided to move to Eugene two days ago and picked up the local newspaper and lo and behold there were tickets available," said Don Burkhalter. "Supposedly the atmosphere at Autzen is worth the ticket, so we'll see."

Other fans said they will wait for an even better deal.

"I can usually get mine for free," said Dan Jergenson, "so if we get tickets for free, yeah, we'll go."