Season tickets to watch the University of Maine men’s and women’s basketball teams have only been on sale for a few weeks. And they’re going fast.
Those tickets have officially been on sale for two weeks after a soft launch a week before that, according to Logan Desmond, UMaine’s associate athletic director for revenue generation. He said it has been “a really, really good start” so far.
After selling 316 men’s season tickets for this past season, UMaine has already added 255 new ones in the past few weeks. The more than 560 total between continued and new season tickets still leaves some tickets available, with Desmond saying that the maximum number of season tickets is around 800 each for the men’s and women’s programs.
The women’s team already had close to 700 season tickets heading into this preseason and have added 58 more so far in recent weeks. So the women’s team is not far from reaching that 800 threshold.
Desmond said the surge in men’s tickets outpaces new season ticket sales at this point last year. He didn’t have exact numbers for last year’s sales at this point.
“But this is the best year we’ve had in quite some time,” he said.
The same has been true on the court.
This past season, the men’s basketball team made it to the America East Conference finals for the first time since 2004. And with an exciting group of recruits — headlined by Newport native Ace Flagg — momentum has continued to build around the program.
While the team lost two of its top performers to the transfer portal in March, it recently announced the addition of four new transfers as head coach Chris Markwood continues to embrace the portal as the new reality in Division I basketball.
Asked about how Flagg’s arrival factors into the bump in season ticket sales, Desmond agreed that the excitement around Flagg returning to Maine is part of the strong start to ticket sales but not the sole reason for it.
“I think it’s a lot of different things,” Desmond said. “Coach Markwood and his staff being able to recruit a high-high caliber athlete like Ace and the other kids we have coming in this year, and what they’ve been consistently able to pull out of the transfer portal, certainly helps.”
Flagg is one of three incoming freshmen announced by the Black Bears, along with Bashir N’Galang and Josh Ojuri. Flagg’s twin brother, Cooper Flagg, is expected to be the number one pick in the NBA draft, and their mother, Kelly Flagg (then Kelly Bowman), was a standout player for the UMaine women’s team. She told the Bangor Daily News in March that the Flaggs have heard from many excited Mainers who are ready to watch Ace join the Black Bears.
“So many people have reached out to say that they’re buying season tickets next year to go and watch Ace,” Kelly Flagg said. “It’s great for the program. It’s great for our family. It’s great for Ace to have that support.”
That also matches with what multiple Bangor-area basketball fans and business owners have said about their excitement for Ace Flagg’s UMaine debut. And people in the Flagg’s hometown of Newport have said they would be making the trip up to Orono for games this year.
That excitement is palpable, and it certainly isn’t the only buzz surrounding the men’s program right now.
“This is a basketball community and they really bought into what we had last year on the men’s side, and just the success of the team being able to make the championship game,” Desmond said. “I think that’s really driven us this summer.”
The women’s basketball program typically outsells the men’s team at UMaine, and continues to have more total sales at this point in the preseason based on its existing fanbase. But this year, the men’s program has generated more new season ticket sales so far, according to Desmond.
The women’s team will feature two exciting homecomings on its roster. Former Miss Maine Basketball winner Lizzy Gruber of Gardiner is joining UMaine as a transfer from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. And former Oceanside standout Bailey Breen is returning to Maine for her freshman season of college after attending the national basketball powerhouse Montverde Academy, the Florida school where Ace and Cooper Flagg also attended for part of their high school careers.
“We have a community feel around our program and these are names that the community are already familiar with, so that certainly helps,” Desmond said.
The women’s team is poised for a bright future after a tough season with multiple injuries. Even after losing all-conference forward Adrianna Smith and top recruit Maddie Fitzpatrick to season-ending injuries, the Black Bears still made it to the America East semifinals this past campaign.
The women’s team had an average attendance of 1,133 this past season and the men averaged 914.
Season tickets for both the women’s and men’s programs range between $115 and $180. Desmond stressed that more tickets are still available.
Desmond also credited the entire athletic department for “prioritizing basketball and improving the game management and the game atmosphere.” He said that work has paid off these first few weeks of basketball season ticket sales, and noted that UMaine saw a bump in ticket sales across all five of its ticketed sports (women’s ice hockey, men’s ice hockey, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and football) last year.
“It’s department wide for all our ticketed sports, so it’s a good time to be involved with the programs,” he said.
