MORGANTOWN - WVU's football team went through a practice in 88-degree heat Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Mountaineer associate athletic director Matt Wells went through his paces in an air-conditioned WVU Coliseum.
Yet the heat was still on.
Wells, you see, oversees the school's football season ticket sales. And with expectations low for the team practicing later across the way, Wells and the Mountaineer staff have been hustling. The results, however, have been predictable.
"Sales are good," Wells said. "We're basically going to be flat though. We're approaching about 27,300 season tickets sold as of now. Projecting out, I'd imagine we'll sell a few hundred more, but not make it to 28,000. So we're going to be down 4 to 5 percent from last year."
WVU sold 27,948 season tickets last season.
"That isn't a huge drop," Wells said. "I think it can be overcome by an increased focus on single-game and mini-package tickets and all that. But right now we project being down slightly."
There are many reasons. First, West Virginia is 26-25 over the past four seasons.
"Winning always helps," said the associate AD. "I look a lot smarter then."
He tries, however, to take the onus off head coach Dana Holgorsen.
"There's a combination of factors," Wells said. "Across the industry we're all battling dwindling season-ticket sales."
He's correct. For the fifth straight season, FBS schools have seen a drop in overall attendance.
"Economic factors always come into play too," Wells said, "and we know West Virginia has been hit with some rough economic times. That's certainly a factor.
"Then there's what I call the HDTV factor. It's just so good watching from home because of HDTV. When we talk to our season-ticket holders, obviously cost is always an issue and that's the economic part. But then they say, 'We have a 60-inch TV on the wall. We have our own beer in the fridge. And I've got no line to the restroom.'"
Still, those fans are still targets for Wells and staff.
"We've tried to continue to position our mini-packages and make them as attractive as possible," he said. "The hope is the people you lose as a season-ticket holder, you can get back on board with a three- or four-game mini-package or at least a couple of single games.
"I think our schedule lends itself to that. I think of the two-season cycle, this is the more attractive home schedule. That helps us. Other than that, though, we're just working as hard as we can to promote, market and make people aware of the games."
Again, Wells tries to take the heat off the coaches.
"Certainly, the wins and losses, the outlook and hype of any one season is a factor," he said. "I wouldn't call it the main factor, but it is a factor."
The raw data, however, is WVU has seen a steady decline in attendance per game over a 10-year period. There was a severe drop during the 4-8 2013 season.
If you're wondering, the high mark since the new configuration of Puskar Stadium in 2004 was 38,191 season tickets sold in the 2008 season. In 2007, it was 38,037.
Last season, however, marked the sixth straight drop in season-ticket sales. Number seven seems on deck.
The only saving grace for WVU is its program has a loyal base.
"Based upon my time here and our data, this 27,000, 28,000 number is our base," Wells said. "If you go back 15 to 20 years, that's our core group we can rely on. Then other factors take it to the 30,000s or mid-30,000s or upper-30,000s."
There is one spot of sunshine in regard to tickets that isn't about heat. That centers on the opening game against Missouri, which is selling well.
"That one is going real well," Wells said. "At last check, we only had about 4,500 tickets left. With a month left, we feel pretty good about that game being a sellout. We want to sell that out as quickly as we can and then turn our attention to the others."
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.