Despite marquee opponent, JPJ Arena not sold out

Want to come watch North Carolina’s “Psycho T” Tyler Hansbrough and a host of other future NBA players take on Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena on Thursday night?
Surprisingly, it’s still possible.
According to Jim Daves, Virginia’s assistant director of athletics for media relations, there are still some 300 tickets available for the men’s first ACC home game of the season against UNC, the No. 5-ranked team in the country. It could be the first time in several years that UVa’s game versus the Tar Heels hasn’t sold out.
“It’s hard to really say for sure — economy, the time [of the game], team performance,” said Daves, when asked why he thought tickets were still remaining. “Those are certainly all factors that you can look at and say they make sense for why a game may not be completely sold out at this time, but it’s hard to really pinpoint a specific thing.”
Because Thursday’s game is being broadcast on ESPN, it has a start time of 9 p.m. Last year’s contest against the Tar Heels, which sold out, started at 8. The schools didn’t meet in Charlottesville in 2006-07, Virginia’s first year in JPJ.
It is believed that UVa’s games against UNC at the much-smaller University Hall sold out for several years prior to the switch to the new arena. U-Hall had a seating capacity of 8,392; JPJ seats 14,593.
Another possible reason why the game hasn’t sold out, according to Daves, is that the school hasn’t sold as many of its mini-plan season ticket packages as it has in the past, thus creating more single-game tickets.
Virginia (7-6, 1-1) is coming off a loss at Virginia Tech on Saturday, but still finds itself ahead of UNC (14-2,
0-2) in the ACC standings. The Tar Heels have dropped their first two league games, including a loss at Wake Forest on Sunday night.
Tickets can be purchased for $35 on virginiasports.com or by calling (800) 542-8821 or (434) 924-8821.