Kansas State Wildcats expecting large crowd of purple at Liberty Bowl
Kansas State football fans are well known for traveling in large numbers to bowl games, and that won’t change when the Wildcats play Navy in the Liberty Bowl.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor expects a large crowd of purple to be walking in Memphis by the time kickoff arrives at 2:50 p.m. Tuesday.
“I’m guessing we will have probably 15,000 fans here,” Taylor said Saturday. “I don’t know for sure, but definitely somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000.”
That is an impressive number for the Wildcats, all things considered. K-State fans were hoping for a more prestigious postseason destination when the bowls were announced earlier this month, but the fans appear to have enough enthusiasm for the Liberty Bowl to drive and fly to the game the same way they usually do.
The Wildcats also figure to have more fans in attendance than they did the last time they played at the Liberty Bowl and Arkansas fans gobbled up all available tickets outside the K-State section for the 2016 game.
“I hope we have a lot of our fans turn up here and help us, because Navy is not going to be an easy opponent,” Taylor said. “They will show up here soon. I think you are about to see a lot more K-Staters in town.”
K-State fans hoping to sit in the team’s official supporters section at the Liberty Bowl could still purchase tickets from the Wildcats as of Sunday evening, as they hadn’t sold out their ticket allotment.
Taylor said K-State ticket sales started off slow for the Liberty Bowl but picked up as fans learned more about the matchup against No. 21 Navy. He projects more K-State fans to attend the game than their ticket sales indicate, because a large number of traveling supporters have purchased tickets on the secondary market.
The cheapest ticket available on K-State’s website is listed at $85, while tickets were going for as low as $33 on SeatGeek over the weekend.
“We are probably looking to have a lot more fans here than what purchased tickets were from our office,” Taylor said. “We haven’t sold all of our allotment directly, but we are getting closer. There are so many tickets they can get out there at a cheaper rate.”
Taylor said that is an issue teams and bowls may need to address in future years.
“It happens at every bowl,” Taylor said.
The biggest pregame fan event was to occur at 5 p.m. Monday when K-State planned to hold its pep rally on Beale Street in the heart of downtown Memphis.
K-State players seem to have enjoyed their time here so far. Since arriving on Thursday, they have attended welcome parties at the world’s largest Bass Pro Shops, where every player received a $150 gift card, and at Dave & Buster’s. They also visited patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
They have enjoyed the experience thus far.
“It’s a great opportunity,” K-State freshman receiver Joshua Youngblood said. “We are in a great city and a great bowl playing a great opponent. We couldn’t ask for more.”
Things figure to get better when he sees lots of purple on game day.
“I am just so appreciative of those guys,” Youngblood said. “They like me, they root for me and they really wish the best for me. It’s been a blessing to have these fans and this community around this team.”
This story was originally published December 28, 2019 at 6:09 PM.