Alabama football: Durham all abuzz about visit from Crimson Tide in preparation for game at Duke
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Rarely does a new destination pop onto the itinerary for the traveling Alabama football fan.
The Tide, after all, hasn’t played a true non-conference road game since jetting to Hawaii in 2003.
So the Saturday trip to Duke represents somewhat of a change of pace from the Southeastern Conference venues.
And the city of Durham is bracing for the influx.
An extra 3,904 seats temporarily will raise the capacity of Wallace Wade Stadium to 37,845, which is still smaller than any facility that has hosted the Tide in recent memory, including the 39,970-seat Vanderbilt Stadium.
Duke coach David Cutcliffe, a Birmingham, Ala., native who was an undergraduate assistant at Alabama from 1972-75, issued a warning to the basketball-minded Blue Devil fans.
“The first thing, they won’t be hard to recognize,” he said. “They will be wearing red. They will be wearing houndstooth. They will have flags on their cars and stickers. They will have mobile homes. I think it’s a great tribute to the program, the road following. I know a lot of people are excited about coming to see Duke and haven’t been here before.
“When they start arriving early on Thursday, to sightsee around town and be in the area, folks don’t need to be too surprised.”
Sam Poley of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau said there’s definitely “a buzz around town” with the defending national champions arriving, but it isn’t paralyzing.
There was, however, a dilemma when finding a place to park the fleet of recreational vehicles that follow the Tide wherever it goes. Boo Corrigan, Duke’s senior associate director for external affairs told The Charlotte Observer that his staff started driving around town six months ago scouting potential temporary RV parks for “a unique issue to Alabama, for sure.”
Along with the extra seating, Duke hired extra security personnel to handle the largest crowd that will see a game in Durham since 1965, when 45,000 attended the Blue Devils’ 34-7 win over North Carolina.
The home team had an option to move the game to a larger, neutral site but chose instead to keep the game in the cozy on-campus stadium. That left a potentially more lucrative plan on the table because NFL stadiums in Atlanta and Charlotte could have accommodated much larger crowds in the return game of a home-and-home series. Alabama won the first meeting 30-14 in 2006.
“I think there’s always temptation when you’re talking about a great deal of money, but this thing is bigger than money,” Cutcliffe said. “I was amazed that (athletics director) Dr. (Kevin) White and (president) Dr. (Richard) Broadhead both just never flinched. They want what’s best for our program, and the best thing for our program is to play the big games at our stadium. A lot of things have changed here.”
Back in the 1990s, Duke traded the rights to host ACC opponent Florida State to Jacksonville and Orlando for cash effectively selling home games back to the already-superior home team.
Duke is still taking advantage of the money-making opportunity. The school reportedly sold a record number of season tickets, and the single-game passes for the Alabama game sold for $50 apiece — twice what it charged for seats to the opener against Elon of the Football Championship Subdivision. And to buy one of the 3,900 temporary seats, a $100 membership fee to the Iron Dukes booster club is required.
Online ticket scalpers are asking as much as $1,187.50 for a set of four seats, but as reasonable as $43 apiece for end zone seats on eBay.com and Stubhub.com, respectively.
This story was originally published September 15, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Alabama football: Durham all abuzz about visit from Crimson Tide in preparation for game at Duke."