East Carolina sets season ticket record for first year of McNeill era

Pirate Nation passes old record of 22,000

While the Pirates may have lost the architect of their back-to-back conference title teams, there is more excitement than ever before for East Carolina football.

And why shouldn’t there be?

The Pirate Nation is not only thrilled about the return of ECU letterwinner Ruffin McNeill as its head coach and the schemes his staff is bringing, but it also anticipates the unveiling of the newly expanded Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The East endzone is now enclosed due to the addition of 7,000 seats. The venue will also possess a new scoreboard, which will be one of the largest in the nation, and over 10,000 new purple chairback seats. The home schedule features a non-conference date with in-state rival N.C. State, as well as a first-ever visit from Navy.

With just over three weeks remaining to the season opener against Tulsa, there have been a record 22,250 season tickets sold. Additionally, over 7,800 students have joined the Student Pirate Club. This means that just over 30,000 tickets for each of the Pirates’ six home games have already been spoken for.

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