As the kickoff of the 2022 football season is less than 11 days away, the UTEP football program is approaching a sellout for the home opener against North Texas on Saturday, August 27.

Director of Athletics Jim Senter joined SportsTalk on Monday to preview the upcoming athletics season and mentioned that the athletic department has around "five to six thousand" tickets remaining for the season's kickoff.

Due to the recent renovations that allow for luxury seating at the Sun Bowl, the stadium has a capacity of 46,670.

"It would be a phenomenal accomplishment for us to have a sellout, which we're going to have," said Senter. "It's going to happen. It will be a phenomenal accomplishment to have everyone in that stadium because it's going to be electric. We're going to have a great opponent in North Texas. They're picked fifth, we're picked sixth. It's going to be a hell of a ball game. What will be special is how the crowd will feed to the kids and get them excited."

UTEP's last sellout came in 2008 when the Miners hosted the Texas Longhorns with head coach Mack Brown and star quarterback Colt McCoy. The crowd of 53,415 witnessed the Longhorns take the victory over UTEP, 41-13.

Sun Bowl Largest Crowds Per UTEP Football
Sun Bowl Largest Crowds Per UTEP Football
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UTEP hasn't had over 45,000 fans in the Sun Bowl since the Texas game. Before the Longhorns came to El Paso, the Miners would pack over 40,000 regularly in the mid-2000s under then-head coach Mike Price. The program drew 31,658 fans for the highly anticipated battle against UTSA last season, and the Miners had 34,646 fans for the 2019 season opener against Houston Baptist, which featured discounted tickets.

"I'm so proud of our staff. I can't name them all. Our team has worked really hard with this 915 campaign. This is your city, this is your team, this is your game. We want everyone in this El Paso market to be prideful of the Miners."

"I would love to announce on Thursday or Friday [of next week] that the game is sold out," Senter said.

The Miners haven't beat the Mean Green in football since 2016, when Aaron Jones was running the rock for UTEP. Since then, they have lost five straight.

Senter also recommended that fans should get to the stadium extra early due to the large crowd coming next Saturday. He encourages UTEP students to take advantage of their free ticket via the Gold Mine Sports Lottery.

Fans that wish to purchase tickets for the North Texas home opener can click here to purchase their seats. 

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