College Football

Harbaugh Effect? Michigan reports increase in ticket sales

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:07 p.m. ET

foxsports

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- It looks like Jim Harbaugh is already helping Michigan at the box office.

The school is reporting football season-ticket sales of nearly 90,000, an immediate boost following the hiring of Harbaugh as coach. The 89,975 season-ticket sales are the school's most since 2012, and the 72,076 non-student season tickets are the most since 2009.

Michigan students claimed 17,899 tickets, up from 11,597 last season.

Harbaugh was hired in December after a mediocre stretch under Brady Hoke. Michigan went 5-7 last year, and there were patches of empty seats at Michigan Stadium at times, especially in the sections where students usually sit. The team's decades-long streak of home games with attendance of at least 100,000 did manage to survive the season, but not by much.

In October, Michigan announced that it would be reducing the price of student season tickets to football games this year.