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Ticket sales have increased as Rutgers enters its first season in the Big Ten.

(Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger)

The buzz of the Big Ten is being felt at the Rutgers box office.

With a far more attractive home schedule to offer than recent years, Rutgers is closing in on the goal set by chief marketing officer Geoff Brown of 26,000 to 27,000 season tickets sold. Rutgers topped the 25,000 season-ticket mark on Tuesday, and sales have continued to rise over the past two weeks since three-game mini-plans were released.

"I'm very excited," Brown said. "A lot of what we thought could happen has happened over the last two weeks as mini-plans started going. When fans were calling in and saying, 'Here's the three games I want,' the ticket reps were able to explain to them a little more fully that for the next three games, this is all it's going to cost. The best price is the season ticket. The best plan to buy is the season ticket. We were able to move a lot of people who originally called for a mini-plan into a season ticket. Over the last few weeks, the season ticket sales really jumped."

Rutgers sold 22,040 season tickets last season and 18,555 in 2012. Over 93 percent of last year's season ticket holders renewed and 4,500 new season tickets have sold.

"Fans are obviously excited about the Big Ten as a whole, the opponents coming in, the buzz about how formidable we're going to be on the field with these guys and obviously that first game against Penn State – the first Big Ten game – has been extremely popular," Brown said.

Rutgers has six home games this season. The mini-plans offer fans the option of choosing one game from three different pairings: Penn State or Michigan, Wisconsin or Indiana, Tulane or Howard. The plans cost $210 for an upper sideline seat and $177 for an end zone seat.

Rutgers has sold 1,181 mini-plans, up from 486 last year when a package of Arkansas, Cincinnati and Houston was offered. The most popular games have been Penn State, Wisconsin and Tulane, but Brown said the numbers change "almost every day."

Considering that Big Ten fan bases traditionally travel well, there's a possibility that High Point Solutions Stadium could be overrun with Penn State or Michigan supporters for those games. With visiting teams allotted just 3,000 tickets and secondary market prices expected to be high, it's natural to wonder if opposing fans are buying Rutgers' mini-plans to ensure a ticket to their desired game.

Brown doesn't believe that's been a common occurrence at this point.

"Here's how we're gauging it right now: 85 percent of all of our mini-plans, as of last Friday, were purchased by people with New Jersey addresses," Brown said. "I do not know that that's not a Penn State fan buying three games just to get the one. But the fact that 85 percent of those people have an address in New Jersey tells me there's a real good chance that all three of those games get used."

Season tickets and mini-plans, as well as group tickets for the Indiana, Tulane and Howard games, will remain on sale for the next two months. On July 28, single-game tickets will be made available to season ticket holders, who will be able to buy a maximum of two or four tickets based on their priority points. For the three premium matchups (Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin), it will cost $100 for an upper sideline seat and $85 for an end zone seat. For the other three games it will cost $60 for an upper sideline seat and $45 for an end zone seat.

Season ticket holders will have exclusive access to single game tickets for a week before they are released to the general public on Aug. 4. When the tickets hit the open market, they will be subject to a dynamic pricing model based on demand.

"For the same seat for those four Big Ten games, we could have four different price points," Brown said. "If I only have 500 Penn State tickets left, guess what, the price point is going to be a little higher. If I have 5,000 Penn State tickets left, then maybe the price point is a little bit lower. I think it's very conceivable some of these Big Ten games get closed out before they go on sale to the general public. I think that's absolutely possible. And if they don't, you can make the argument that it's better for us financially because then I put them out on the market at a higher price point."

Brown promises he won't sell tickets on the open market for less than season ticket holders pay during their exclusive window.

With High Point Solution Stadium's capacity of 52,454, it's estimated that approximately 11,000 tickets will be left for the general public. Rutgers expects to sell 27,000 season tickets, and there are 10,000 tickets for students, 3,000 tickets for the visiting team and 1,000 tickets for hospitality/player-guests.

Rutgers receives an allotment of 3,000 tickets for each road game. Brown said the Ohio State game is selling the fastest, but there are tickets remaining for all six away games.