All remaining tickets for the widely anticipated New Canaan-Darien Thanksgiving morning football game sold out in 37 minutes, New Canaan school district officials said. Darien had fewer available tickets than New Canaan, and those sold out even quicker.
Sign of the times (photo from NewCanaanite.com)
All 2,800 tickets allocated to New Canaan High School had sold out by 12:37 p.m. Monday, while the 1,900 tickets for Darien sold out by 12:05 p.m., New Canaan High School Athletic Director Jay Egan confirmed.
Officials landed on that 60-40 split because the Rams are hosting this year’s Turkey Bowl at Dunning Stadium in New Canaan. Individual students and football families were allowed to purchase tickets in advance, Egan said.
The 4,700 total tickets sold will accommodate fans who will fill not only Dunning’s regular stands but also 1,000-plus extra seats and an estimated 1,000 in standing room, he said.
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— This article originally was published by NewCanaanite.com (but that’s Darienite.com’s headline).
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Officials had planned to sell the tickets over three days. This year marked the first time that no game-day tickets would be available.
In the past, the two rival teams have met on Thanksgiving for the FCIAC championship—a game the conference has since done away with. This year, the Rams and Blue Wave both are undefeated, but the large venue that’s been available before—the 10,000 capacity Boyle Stadium, home of the Stamford High School Black Knights—will host the Stamford-Westhill rival game.
“Last year no issue there was no issue because Stamford [High School] was away, and the year before that, they played their game on Wednesday night, which they had wanted to do for a while,” Egan told NewCanaanite.com.
“But it didn’t work out for them from a security perspective—so we could not ask them to play their game again on Wednesday night, because that’s really not safe for anybody—and this is not the FCIAC championship game anymore. So it technically is another regular season game for New Canaan and Darien.”
Officials had looked at both Sacred Heart and Fairfield Universities, Egan said, but in truth the capacity at those venues at some 5,000-plus isn’t much larger than Dunning.
Kickoff for Thursday’s game is 10:30 a.m.
For the past two years, the Blue Wave has captured the coveted Turkey Bowl crown, winning the FCIAC championship in the process.