UCF football fans start lining up for Fiesta Bowl tickets

ORLANDO, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - University of Central Florida (UCF) students are already lined up and camping out for tickets to the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona.

The tickets don’t even go on sale until 9 o’clock Tuesday morning, but these students are determined to get a good deal, as tickets are only $50 for the first 500 students.

“We wanted to make sure we were first in line,” senior business major Christian Rivera Tapia said. He and his friends arrived Sunday at 4pm.

“We’re all rotating shifts,” he said. “We got our tent set up, we got like a power grid over there. We’re doing homework, we’re doing finals, trying to stay on top of that.”

Once those tickets are in hand, travel is the one thing they won’t have to take care of as game day gets closer.

“A bunch of us booked flights before everything was announced because we knew there was a high chance it was gonna be Phoenix,” Rivera Tapia said. “So I got a pretty cheap flight because of that and also because some of our friends worked at one of the hotel companies.”

There are still other ways to get to the game that may cost more. Anthony Travel is offering travel packages. A three-night hotel stay and a ride to the game will start at $700 a person. Roundtrip flights from Orlando to Phoenix start around $500.

“So some of us are taking a plane and some of us are driving unfortunately,” Rivera Tapia said.

That’s quite a road trip – 30 hours to be exact. But for the diehard fan, it’s a little pain for a lot of gain.

“My back hurts for sure,” Rivera Tapia. “We only have one mattress so I let me two friends have that and I’m sleeping on the floor. But honestly, it’s just one of those things that I’m never going to forget, especially when I actually get to go to Arizona. Why not while I can do it?”

Fans can watch the Knights take on the Tigers at 1 p.m. EST on New Year’s Day.