The college football season is a few months away, but Wes Brown is already looking forward to spending Saturday afternoons at Wallace Wade Stadium.
"I'm very excited about the new season," said Brown, associate dean for external relations at Duke's Divinity School. "I think Coach David Cutcliffe is going to bring a new sense of excitement and anticipation for all of us who are fans and want Duke to win."
Duke faculty and staff who share Brown's passion can get season tickets now as a part of the Duke Employee Athletic Pass program.
The pass offers a season ticket to every home Duke football and women's basketball game at a reduced rate. Each pass costs $90, which averages out to about $5 a game. The cheapest single-game ticket is $15 for football, $7 for women's basketball. A family of four can buy a pass for $199; each additional person is $49.75. Pass holders receive a fan item such as a car flag or T-shirt.
"It's a fine family activity at a great price," said Brown, who has participated in the offer since 2002. He collects Duke memorabilia -- a piece of the Cameron floor and autographed basketballs and caps. He said he's a lifelong, "through good seasons and not-so-good seasons" Duke sports fan.
The pass program started nearly 10 years ago as a way to drum up support among Duke faculty and staff for the teams. The program is open to all faculty and staff, and participation has ranged from 700 to 1,600 people.
"We're trying to find many different ways to grow our fan base," said Bart Smith, director of promotions for Duke Athletics. "These are people right on this campus, and we want to give them the option to come to games at a discounted rate. It's important for us to get those people out to games."
In addition to football and women's basketball, the promotions department offered men's basketball tickets for select, non-conference games this past year. Smith said every employee pass holder had a chance to purchase a ticket for at least one men's basketball game. He said that Athletics plans for more games to be available with the coming season.
The Duke football season kicks off at home Aug. 30 against James Madison.
"Duke offers terrific sports experiences for graduates and friends and people who enjoy sports," said Brown, a 1976 Divinity School grad who has worked at Duke since 1981. "The opportunity employees have to be part of that for so many games at a very modest price, it's a winner."
For more information, visit GoDuke.com or call (877) 375-DUKE.