The Bill Belichick effect has helped ticket sales for UNC football.
While the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach has attempted to clean up the PR fallout from his disastrous interview on “CBS Sunday Morning,” the excitement over Belichick’s arrival in Chapel Hill has increased interest in the football program substantially.
So much so that UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham told Axios that the Tar Heels had sold out their 20,000 allotment of season tickets for the upcoming campaign.
North Carolina football did not sell out their season ticket allotment last year.
Cunningham said the surging ticket sales came amid a price increase of about 25 percent on average.
The program is expecting to make more money this year with an uptick in primetime games, which includes the season opener on Sept. 1 when the Tar Heels host TCU in North Carolina on ESPN at 8 p.m.
All eyes will be on the Tar Heels this upcoming season with Belichick at the helm as he goes through his first year coaching college football.
While North Carolina hasn’t played a game under the ex-Patriots coach, Belichick has faced intense scrutiny over his off-field life, namely his relationship with 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson.
The couple’s relationship became public last June and her involvement with Belichick’s business dealings has gained greater attention since the CBS interview, in which she interjected to cut off a question about how the pair met.
There has also been some speculation that Belichick could walk away from it all, with the buyout in his contract down to $1 million beginning in June.
Belichick has done a series of interviews over the past week with media outlets in an attempt to reframe the narrative around him and put the focus back on football.
He has attempted to clarify several issues involving Hudson, which included reports that she axed a deal that would have put the Tar Heels as the center of attention on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” and why Hudson was copied on all his North Carolina football emails.
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