While the Athletic Department does not yet have exact attendance figures for Saturday’s football playoff game, it did sell enough tickets to cover the $30,000 payment due to the NCAA.

Assistant Athletics Director Dave Kidwell said the game broke even on the required $30,000 for NCAA as well as $3,000 for expenses.

“At this point the most important thing is knowing we made the guarantee,” he said.

NCAA regulations state that hosting schools must guarantee $30,000 in ticket sales for the first round playoff. Eastern would have been required to guarantee an additional $40,000 if the Panther football team played a second-round game at O’Brien Stadium.

The required amount was obtained through gate receipts, sponsorship from the Apportionment Board, gifts and corporate sponsorships, Kidwell said.

The AB sponsorship was the $5,000 given by AB for free tickets, and “gifts” include individual donations, he said. However, he said he could not detail the specific funds that were derived from corporate sponsorships, donations or ticket sales. Kidwell said attendence figures would not be known this week.

The Athletic Department received $5,000 from the Apportionment Board reserve account to purchase 1,000 student tickets at $5 each to be given away for free. Kidwell said all of those tickets were given away for the game.

Had Eastern gone on to host a second playoff game, they would have received an additional $5,000 from the same account to purchase another 1,000 free tickets for the second game. But since the Panthers lost the first game the AB funds were not appropriated for the now non-existent second game.

Purchasing student tickets to hand them out free was proposed to the AB by the Athletic Department because it was thought students, who usually get into games free, would not be willing to pay to attend the game.