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On Wednesday, there was an uproar when a Texas Tech Red Raiders beat writer tweeted that the Texas Longhorns would charge the Goin' Band from Raiderland $100 apiece for tickets to the Thanksgiving Day contest between the two schools.
The immediate narrative that emerged was that Texas athletics director Steve Patterson was greedily capitalizing on another opportunity to make some extra money, as the report indicated that neither school had ever charged the other for band tickets before.
Patterson responded during the evening:
@notthefakeSVP All Big 12 teams charge each other for tickets for the band or fans.UT was charged & paid last year.
— Steve Patterson (@SWPatterson) September 10, 2015
However, a report from Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News was a little bit contradictory:
FWIW on Texas-Tech band tickets story. Told that Big 12 schools in Texas had gentlemen's agreement not to charge bands. That ended in July.
— Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) September 10, 2015
Whomever told Carlton about the "gentlemen's agreement" could certainly be wrong about when it ended, as Patterson indicates, but that doesn't account for the original report holding that neither school had previous charged the other for tickets.
Horns Digest's Chip Brown essentially agrees with Patterson, reporting that the move from Texas and other Big 12 schools came after Texas Tech charged the Texas band last year, thereby ending the previous agreement reported by Carlton. But one thing that remains clear is that the Texas athletics director continues to lose ground in the court of public opinion.
And even if Patterson is correct, it seems that he's charging the band members a hefty price for those tickets -- the same Texas Tech beat writer says that the most the Goin' Band from Raiderland has paid for tickets in the past is $60.