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The Las Vegas Bowl did not negotiate with bowls higher in the Pac-12 selection order to pit Utah against BYU, said executive director John Saccenti, surrounded by Utah's past bowl trophies at Utah's football facility Thursday.
In fact, he said, "We didn't want to go the route of having a return team."
The Holiday Bowl chose USC, he said, because it couldn't resist the draw of a USC-Wisconsin matchup. The Sun Bowl liked the idea of Mike Leach's return to West Texas. Vegas' hand was forced.
Still, Saccenti admitted, the rivalry element has made it a "home run" for his game. General public tickets sold out within 24 hours of Selection Sunday, and the average ticket resale value was pegged by SeatGeek.com on Thursday morning at $190 — pricier than any other non-New Year's Six bowl.
Saccenti believes they could sell 20,000-30,000 more tickets.
"If we could figure out how to put a second deck on that stadium, I'd do it in a heartbeat," he said.
Utah athletic director Chris Hill said Utah's inability to accommodate the demand is without precedent
"Even with the Fiesta Bowl or the Sugar Bowl, we've never been in a sellout situation, so it's been a challenge," he said.
Saccenti said the bowl is are "exploring all options" to add seats to Sam Boyd Stadium. They've sat more than 38,500 at past Las Vegas Bowls, but the open end of the horseshoe is now filled in by temporary VIP suites, Saccenti said. Extra seats would have to be added at the south end zone, and "there's some stadium logistics that go into that, and then obviously some significant costs."
Hill said he doesn't blame the Pac-12 for negotiating to reduce its commitment to 7,500 tickets, down from the 11,000 that BYU sold out.
"It's the way the league is," he said. "For 11 of the 12 teams, they wouldn't be selling out their 7,500 tickets, and if we went to El Paso, we wouldn't be selling out 6,000 tickets."
Saccenti, likewise, said he doesn't blame the conference.
"They got a good deal. They increased the payouts for all the bowls and they reduced the ticket allotment numbers, so on paper, it was a very good business decision for the Pac-12 to do it. Of course, a situation like this year, they'd like more tickets."
Twitter: @matthew_piper