Ticket cutoffs are out, and it’s not pretty.

The report yesterday about first-time orders was true. A cumulative score of 10,651 points was necessary to become a new renewable season ticket holder. Additionally, we learn today that improving seat location took in the neighborhood of 20,000 points.

The reason for the high cutoff is simple scarcity. With the hype building for the 2008 season, all but 800 out of 53,000 season tickets (98.5%) were renewed. On top of that scarcity, many renewing season ticket holders sought to add seats up to the maximum allowed by their donation. Ticket manager Tim Cearley provided additional details to UGASports.com:

Of (the 800 available season tickets) only 698 were in pairs or groups as the other seats were scattered throughout the stadium by themselves. This is a continuation of a trend seen over the last few years as seat turnover has gone down from 1000 tickets in 2006 to 900 in 2007 and now down to 800 this year. With the season’s expectations being so high, many new contributors were trying to get tickets and many current donors were trying to add seats.

Point levels for away game tickets were also announced, and they are predictably steep. This is the first season where all games come with a cutoff. Usually UGA can fill all orders for a game like Vandy or Kentucky, but tickets for Georgia’s 2008 trip to Lexington will require a cutoff on par with Florida tickets.

• South Carolina – 22,000 points
• Arizona State – 27,007 points
• LSU – 30,415 points
• Florida Club 42,500 points
• Florida – 8,460 points
• Auburn – 25,850 points
• Kentucky – 8,405 points

UGASports.com also shares how the 92,000+ tickets are distributed within Sanford Stadium.

• 53,000: Season tickets
• 18,000: Students
• 10,000: Opponents*
• 4,000: Faculty/staff
• 1,000: Sponsors
• Remainder: Athletic department use – recruiting, player’s families, etc. Each player can request four tickets.

* – They say that 10,000 tickets are reserved for opponents, but we know that figure can vary based on reciprocity. Some schools probably get more and some surely get fewer than 10,000 based on how many tickets they make available for Georgia fans.

The numbers get a little fuzzy towards the bottom. If you do the math, that’s around 6,000 tickets available for the football team, and that seems like a lot even accounting for recruits, players, and families.

Anyway, read the whole thing. There are some very interesting insights into the ticketing process, information on when and how tickets will be mailed, and also a discussion about Sanford expansion.