Capacity expanded at Ray-Jay to meet the demand for USF-Miami football tickets

If you don’t think USF is fired up for Saturday’s football game at Raymond James Stadium against 10th-ranked Miami, think again.

The university announced Sunday that it will open the upper deck at Ray-Jay because of an overwhelming demand for student tickets. That is a rare occurrence at the 65,000-seat stadium.

USF had planned to open only the 45,000-seat lower bowl for this game, which is one of the most highly anticipated home games in recent years. Instead, the plan now is to open Ray-Jay’s west deck, increasing the stadium’s capacity to 55,000 for this game.

Student tickets at USF’s three campuses are free for USF’s 50,000 students, and as of Sunday morning, a record 14,535 seats were claimed. The previous record was 12,549 in 2021 when USF played the Florida Gators.

“We are thrilled to see all the excitement surrounding Saturday’s game against Miami and are grateful for the high demand, particularly with the record level of requests we've seen so far from our students," Vice President for Athletics Michael Kelly said in a news release.

“It's a great time to run with the Bulls and we are excited to offer additional inventory for our fans to attend this Sunshine State showdown.”

USF drew 36,694 fans to watch this season’s opening game against Bethune-Cookman. That was the Bulls’ only home game so far.

That exceeds the planned capacity of 35,000 in the on-campus stadium USF plans to open in 2027.

The Bulls are 2-1 after beating Southern Mississippi 45-24 in Hattiesburg. Miami pummeled Ball State 62-0 to move to 3-0 on the season. The Hurricanes previously defeated Florida and FAMU.

They are led by quarterback Cam Ward, a strong Heisman Trophy candidate. Ward has 11 touchdowns so far, including five in little more than a half against Ball State, against only one interception.

This is the first meeting of the two programs since 2013 when Miami beat the Bulls 49-21. They’ve played six times, with Miami winning five.

The Bulls will travel to Miami in 2025.