Husky football fans are doing everything they can to witness history in New Orleans
Whether by air, by land or over the sea, Washington football fans are doing everything they can to make it to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans for one of the most important games in program history.
When the No. 2-ranked Huskies take on the No. 3 Texas Longhorns on New Year’s Day, the winner will go on to play for the national championship. It’s a pretty big deal.
A trip to the Rose Bowl would’ve been preferable for many, but UW fans aren’t letting travel headaches keep them away. Despite a dearth of direct flights from Seattle to New Orleans, pricey hotels or some hectic travel logistics, eager Husky fans are still showing up en masse.
UW’s last season in the Pac-12 (before a move to the Big Ten next season), has been one of the most — if not THE most — memorable Husky football seasons ever. The many accomplishments during this magical 13-0 season include a Pac-12 championship, a Coach of the Year Award winner in Kalen DeBoer and a Heisman runner-up in quarterback Michael Penix Jr. But the Huskies and their fans have their gaze set on a bigger prize: a national title.
UW won national championships in 1960 and 1991 but hasn’t made a national championship game since the playoff system was created in 2014. Washington fell to Alabama in its last College Football Playoff berth in 2016, which was the most recent appearance in the CFP by a Pac-12 team.
As of Friday, the cheapest nonstop round-trip ticket to New Orleans was nearly $1,100. But to many, the chance to watch the Dawgs play in the Big Easy for a spot in the national title game is priceless.
Luckily for many fans, Alaska Airlines added several more flights to and from New Orleans in the weeks leading up to and following the game. And while some lucky UW supporters managed to snag tickets on those nonstop flights, others are having to get creative in their quest to the Superdome.
2023 UW grad Alex Grajeda said the prices for direct flights made the trip almost impossible for him and his father, Mark, to attend the game. But he found an affordable round-trip ticket to San Antonio, nearly 550 miles away from New Orleans, while Mark will fly into Austin.
By making the nearly eight-hour drive from San Antonio instead of flying direct, Grajeda estimates that they will save about $800. As for tickets to the game, Grajeda did pretty well, as verified resale tickets on Ticketmaster are currently selling for a minimum of $170 before taxes and fees.
“The tickets, I got lucky,” Grajeda said. “I’m a member of the Young Tyee Club as a recent graduate and a season-ticket holder, so I got two tickets through UW for $145.”
Renton native and UW alum Alan Nguyen might have the craziest Sugar Bowl journey of anyone: He will travel to the game from vacation in Vietnam. Nguyen’s trip will begin at 12:35 p.m. New Year’s Eve in Hanoi, with layovers in Singapore and Newark, N.J., before he arrives in New Orleans at 10 a.m. New Year’s Day.
That brings his travel day to 34 hours and 20 minutes, but there wasn’t a chance he would miss out on the Sugar Bowl. He’s been there for every UW New Year’s Six bowl game in the College Football Playoff era, and also attended the 2016 playoff game against Alabama.
To him, watching the Huskies play in the Sugar Bowl is about much more than just football.
“It means everything to our family,” Nguyen said. “When my parents and family immigrated from the war [in Vietnam], they came to Seattle and all got degrees from UW but didn’t understand the concept of college sports as a form of pride. But for my brother and I, we were raised American, and Husky sports was used as that bridge to connect between two very separate generations.”
Ian Cornwell has been a Husky fan since 1999 and decided to attend the Sugar Bowl as a way to make up for missing out on the last Husky CFP berth.
Like many fellow UW season-ticket holders, he got his tickets through the university’s ticket allotment system. The Sugar Bowl teams were allowed to distribute 12,500 tickets each, and prices ranged from $145 to $315. All of UW’s tickets have been distributed, a school spokesperson confirmed.
Because he lives in Las Vegas, airline prices weren’t as bad for Cornwell as for those coming from Seattle, but his friend is flying to Nashville and then taking a train to New Orleans. While flight prices weren’t terrible, prices for hotels in New Orleans were “astronomical.” Between lodging, airfare and game tickets, the price tag was already getting close to $2,000.
“But for me, it’s worth it,” Cornwell said. “I kicked myself for not going in the 2016 season when they played Alabama in the playoff and told myself that no matter what, I wasn’t going to miss this one.”
For others, the best way to get to the game was to avoid the air altogether. Seattle resident Brian Neville is driving more than 3,000 miles to attend the game. Neville had Christmas plans in San Diego, so he drove down from Seattle and attended the Holiday Bowl, then heads east to New Orleans for the game with his wife and two daughters, one of whom is a UW sophomore.
To them, the Huskies are a way of life. Neville’s grandmother was an undergrad from 1933 to 1937, and his mother and father met at a UW HUB dance in the 1960s. As a family, Neville and his wife and daughters will have attended the Peach, Sugar and Rose Bowls together after this year.
