Visiting Marching Band Policy at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium
Over the past few days, there have been several questions and some misinformation regarding the travel of marching bands to football games at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium and at road games in which we participate.
For non-conference play, we have provided 300 complimentary tickets to both Rice University and the University of California at Berkeley for their marching bands. These tickets are specified in their contracts and have been provided to both institutions by The University of Texas. We are disappointed that the MOB from Rice University has chosen not to attend, as we were excited to host one of the great traditions of college football. We are excited to host the band from the University of California at Berkeley at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium and will enjoy the pageantry that they will add to our gameday environment.
For Big 12 Conference games, six of the 10 schools in the Big 12 have historically charged visiting schools for both band and fan seats. The four Texas schools had a gentleman’s agreement to simply charge the fans for the tickets and provide complimentary tickets to the marching bands. The change to smaller venues across the conference, such as TCU and Baylor, caused a shift in that agreement.
Last year, when Texas traveled to Lubbock to play Texas Tech, we were charged for and paid full price for all tickets, including the tickets provided to the Longhorn Band. The current policy, clarified and approved by Big 12 business managers this past summer, states all visiting schools pay for all seats they use at full price. Texas did not initiate the discussions on this policy. We are merely following the practice approved by the Big 12 member institutions.
The Athletics Department at Texas will be paying for the seats for the full Longhorn Band when we travel to Baylor and TCU this year, and at the AT&T Red River Showdown against Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. We will pay full price, again, for our tickets when we return to Lubbock to play Texas Tech in 2016.
We hope that these facts provide clarity to the situation and clear up the misinformation.
