Grizzlies’ Football Fortunes Uplifting For Travel Agents

All 2,500 tickets available at the University of Montana for Saturday’s I-AA national championship game against Marshall University were snatched up Monday, and UM fans are filling nearly a dozen charter flights to West Virginia for the game.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s unbelievable,” said Kelly Brehm, an agent at Budget Travel in Missoula. “Our charter was sold out before we opened this morning.”

Every travel agent in Missoula was booking a charter to the game by mid-day. “Planes are coming out of the woodwork,” said Brehm. “This is big.”

The game tickets were gone by noon Monday, said fieldhouse manager Gary Hughes. “I started out asking for 1,000 on Saturday, then bumped that to 2,000 on Sunday, then to 2,500 this morning (Monday). And I have another 100 people on a waiting list.”

Hughes knew of eight charter flights out of Missoula, two out of Great Falls and another leaving Helena.

Montana Sen. Max Baucus bought 50 tickets for the “Grizzly Express” bus trip he is organizing. Huntington is a six-hour road trip from Washington, D.C.

Boardwalk Travel manager Deborah Ross said she’s been swamped with calls since last Wednesday. “And we were so optimistic that we started planning right away,” she said. “The enthusiasm is just fantastic. People are really going crazy for the Griz.”