Football, Paul McCartney tickets in big demand at BJC

Whether you were looking forward to the first Nittany Lions football game of the year or a night of tunes with a music legend, the Bryce Jordan Center had just the ticket on Monday.

The venue was the scene of two sales that collided when student tickets for Friday’s Temple game went on sale the same day that general sales opened for the Oct. 15 “Out There” concert by former Beatle and epic songwriter Sir Paul McCartney.

The two were both a hit, along with the Penn State Blue Band, which showed up to provide the soundtrack for the event.

At 3 p.m., Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics spokesman Jeff Nelson said that only a handful of tickets were still available for the 3:30 p.m. away game on Saturday in Philadelphia. An hour later, Penn State students had totally snapped up their allotment at $50 apiece.

With a capacity of more than 15,000 seats, the Bryce Jordan Center had a lot more seats to offer for McCartney’s first Centre County appearance in his more than 50-year career. Limited pre-sales for American Express members started early, but it didn’t take long to deplete the 85-90 percent of tickets that went available Monday morning.

At 5:30 p.m., a search at Ticketmaster.com would turn up a select ticket here or there at the upper end of the cost spectrum, like the $270.55 seats in Row 38, but it was hit or miss. Also available were the pricier VIP experiences, although the $2,000 front-row package with pre-show reception and specially designed merchandise was sold out.

“There will only be scattered single tickets remaining very soon. Everyone associated with the tour is excited about the local response for tickets,” said Jordan Center director of sales and marketing Bernie Punt.

At other online ticket venues, seats are going for as much as $2,805.

“I hope no one supports the scalpers,” Punt said.

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 6:42 PM with the headline "Football, Paul McCartney tickets in big demand at BJC."