ARIZONA, BYU TO OPEN 2016 FOOTBALL SEASON AT UOP STADIUM
The 2015 football season officially ended on Monday night when Alabama defeated Clemson at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. The next time college football will be played in that venue, your Wildcats will face BYU on Saturday, Sept. 3. This game is already being talked about around the nation as one of the best games of a jam-packed opening weekend, and this will be another chance for Wildcat fans to show off their passion. We need you there. BYU will likely have a strong showing as well and we want to make sure our football program has as much support as possible for this big, neutral-site game.
While this game is independent of our season-ticket package, our football season ticket holders and Wildcat Club members will have an exclusive window to purchase tickets starting Jan. 23. Then, on March 1, tickets will be available to the general public. We will continue to provide updates as we approach those dates so you can start making plans to be in Glendale, and once again, show everyone that The Valley is Wildcat Country.
FOOTBALL RENEWALS COMING SOON
There are a few other key dates coming up that we want to point out in addition to the season-opener next year. Season ticket renewals will be e-mailed on Feb. 1. Once again, we will offer a convenient payment plan and incentives for renewing early.
Feb. 3 is our OKG (Our Kind of Guy) Day, which starts with our live stream #AZOKGDay Show on National Signing Day and ends with the Night of OKGs reception in the Sands Club at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility. Registration is now open for the latter by clicking HERE.
Spring practice starts on Feb. 5 and the spring game will be on March 4.
Be on the lookout for more information on all of these events soon.
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP IN SETTING NEW ATTENDANCE RECORDS
We spend a lot of time urging you to come out to our events because of the impact you have on the success of our programs. Last week, we mentioned the boost you give our student-athletes and the affect full venues has on the way prospective student-athletes see our athletics department. You've responded, and as a result, we've seen a few single-game attendance records broken this year.
During the fall, 1,302 fans attended the UA-ASU soccer match, breaking a 10-year-old record. Then, 6,652 fans watched as our women's basketball team defeated Kansas, bettering the previous mark of 6,268. Finally, you helped us shatter the single-meet attendance record for gymnastics last Friday. We had 3,707 root on the Wildcats to victory over Michigan St., which was more than 1,500 fans more than the previous record.
This is fantastic and we want you to keep it up. We don't want to just talk about single-event records, we're looking for season-long records. We've got a lot of entertaining teams competing, so come on out and make our home events part of your weekly schedule. We can't thank you enough for the support you're showing this year and expect it will continue throughout the winter and spring seasons.
A FEW MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE UPDATES
We announced a couple of men's basketball schedule updates recently but we want to make sure you are aware of them. The home men's basketball game versus Oregon on Thursday, Jan. 28 has been moved to a 7 p.m. MST tip time. The game is airing on ESPN2.
In addition, our road game at Cal on Saturday, Jan. 23 has been set for a 6:30 p.m. MST tip. That game will air on ESPN.
REMINDER ON CLEAR BAG POLICY
We've written a lot about the new clear bag policy over the last few months, but as new seasons are getting under way, we want to remind you that the Clear Bag Policy pertains to all events and all venues. If you're coming out to our events, please remind those you are attending with about the Clear Bag Policy.
In our effort provide a safe environment, compliance with the policy helps everyone have a good experience at our events. If you need a refresher on the policy, you can click HERE to learn more.
BOOK YOUR ROOMS IN VEGAS NOW
Our friends at Bon Voyage Travel are now offering three and four-night hotel packages in Las Vegas for the 2016 Pac-12 Tournament. The rooms are for the MGM Grand, which is connected to the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the site of the tournament. Click HERE for more information or to make a reservation.
KIDCATS CLUB OFFER FOR FRIDAY'S WOMEN'S BASKETBALL GAME
Attention Arizona KidCats Club members! Come support our women's basketball team this Friday as we'll take on Utah in McKale Center at 7:00 p.m. MST. All KidCats Club members will receive admission for just $1 by showing your membership card at the McKale Ticket Office thanks to our friends at Hughes Federal Credit Union. If you are not yet a member, sign up today for free atwww.ArizonaKidCats.org. We look forward to seeing you there.
BASEBALL ALUMNI REUNION SET FOR JANUARY 30
As we mentioned last week, before the Jay Johnson era officially starts, we will host a special event to celebrate those who came before and helped build the program into a national power. Letterwinners and former coaches, such as Andy Lopez, will be on hand for a special meet and greet on Saturday, Jan. 30 at Hi Corbett Field. The event will start with either a home run derby or alumni game featuring some of the most prominent faces in the program's history. An autograph session with both letterwinners and the current team will follow. After the autograph session, fans are invited to stick around for a nine-inning intrasquad game. All of these events are free to attend and open to the general public. Click HERE for more information.
CATS IN THE COMMUNITY
The Arizona Wildcats have started the year out right! To show appreciation for all that our community does to support our teams and student-athletes, we have labeled January as Cats Give Back Month! Throughout the upcoming weeks, student-athletes, coaches and staff will be volunteering and doing service projects around Tucson.
One item of note that has already occurred saw coaches and student-athletes volunteer at the Casa Maria Soup Kitchen. They served others by packing and organizing food and making lunches for those in need in our community.
If you are a registered non-profit and could use the helping hands of our student-athletes, please complete the online request form HERE.
TWITTER GIVEAWAY
Congrats to Shivanna Johnson (@peanutflower3) for being selected as this week's winner of the #ByrneTwitterGiveaway. A member of the athletics department staff will DM you with more information on how to secure your prize so make sure you're following @AZAthletics.
Here is this week's Twitter giveaway message:
Good luck to all @AZAthletics student-athletes during the spring semester. #BearDown
@Greg_Byrne #ByrneTwitterGiveaway
Each week, we'll provide a phrase accompanied by the twitter handle @Greg_Byrne and the hashtag #ByrneTwitterGiveaway for Wildcat Wednesday subscribers to tweet. We'll select the winner(s) at random and announce in the following edition of Wildcat Wednesday. We hope you'll have some fun with this and participate each week. As long as we're seeing a lot of participation, we'll keep the giveaways going throughout the year.
COMPLIANCE CORNER
Student-athletes are back in class today as we begin the spring semester at the University of Arizona. Some of our sports are already in season while others are on the recruiting trail trying to secure our next class of signees. At this time, we would like to provide a friendly reminder that it is not permissible to try to persuade recruits to attend the University of Arizona, including on social media. Your cooperation in this is vital to ensure our commitment to compliance, which is everyone's responsibility. If you have any questions, please contact the Compliance Office at (520) 621-4796.
ARIZONA NUGGETS
Gymnastics' freshmen Lauryn Mattson and Skyler Sheppard each won two events during the GymCats season-opening win over Michigan St. … Women's Basketballis 7-1 at McKale this season and will host two home games this weekend …Baseball's Bobby Dalbec was named to his second preseason All-America team when Rawlings Perfect Game put him on its second team … Women's Swimmingwon all but two events in sweeping a quad meet against NAU, New Mexico St. and Oregon St.
WEAR THE COLORS – SHARE THE PHOTOS
Thank you for wearing the colors and sharing your Arizona pride! If your photo submission did not make this week's edition of the Wildcat Wednesday, please check our "Wildcat Wednesday" album at facebook.com/ArizonaAthletics.
NOTE: Please submit photos for Wildcat Wednesday with an original email touofaad@arizona.edu using the subject line 'Wildcat Wednesday photo.' Also, please ensure all submissions are clear and properly lit. We also ask that you identify everyone in the photo so we can highlight them accordingly.
