BEAUMONT — BEAUMONT -- Lamar University has encountered an unprecedented football ticket interest in the last 48 hours.

  Ticket manager Landon Delage looked as if he had encountered the eye of Hurricane Rita by Wednesday afternoon in his Montagne Center office. That’s because fan interest has skyrocketed for LU's home opener on Saturday against Webber International (2-0) in Provost Umphrey Stadium at 6 p.m.

  Fire marshals inspected the stadium's landscape and hillsides on Wednesday to determine if LU officials would be permitted to sell standing-room tickets for the game. An announcement was expected to be released today.

  The problems regarding fan interest are many and unique for Lamar which has not had a home football game since  November of 1989. That interest undoubtedly escalated after Lamar's 30-27 season-opening loss at McNeese last Saturday.

  "We opened up on Tuesday morning with about 400 seats left," Delage said. "We have a few students seats which are selling right now. So we have a sellout because the student section definitely is going to be full.... A decision has to be made on whether or not we will sell standing-room either on Friday or on game day."

  The complexities of LU's ticket demand are many. The stadium capacity for Cardinal Stadium in 1989 was listed as 17,150. Capacity at the newly renovated Provost Umphrey Stadium is 16,000, according to Delage. Those seats were all sold as of Tuesday, except for a handful of student-section tickets.

  Construction of the Montagne Center on the north end of the football stadium has caused the hillsides to have a much more steep slope than during the Cardinal Stadium-era. Plus, stadium construction and recent rainfall has softened the ground on the hillsides considerably.

  Lamar head football coach Ray Woodard encouraged the fan interest on Sunday, saying that if McNeese could "have 19 (thousand), let's have 20." But the opportunity to handle such a turnout may not be permitted.

  Saturday's 6 o'clock kickoff is the first of six Lamar home games in the 2010. The remaining home games (all with 6 p.m. kickoffs) are Sam Houston State on Oct. 2, Langston University on Oct. 9, South Alabama on Oct. 16, South Dakota on Nov. 13 and Panhandle State on Nov. 20.

  Due to the fan interest, the Lamar ticket office has indicated it intended to sell season tickets for the remaining five home games starting on Monday morning at 9 a.m. Fans may purchase a price-adjusted season ticket for five games either online (lamarcardinals.com) or at the Lamar ticket office.