UNM-NMSU rivalry crescendos off the field with marching band dispute. Here's why.

UPDATE: NMSU marching band will attend, perform at UNM game after donor contributions

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When New Mexico and New Mexico State kick off Saturday, it might be a little quieter than usual in the stands.

NMSU News 22, a student-run newscast, first reported this week that the NMSU Pride marching band would have to pay $20 a seat to sit in the stands during the UNM-NMSU rivalry football game in Albuquerque. When reached by the Journal, NMSU Pride did not respond.

Contractually, NMSU gets 450 complimentary tickets to Saturday's game. UNM says NMSU's band members can attend and perform at the game by using some of those tickets. NMSU says it previously hasn't used its allotment of complimentary tickets for band members and hasn't had to pay for band members otherwise.

However, New Mexico Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez said it's "standard procedure" that if a visiting team or program exhausts its share of complimentary tickets, the visiting party pays for extra tickets. Nuñez confirmed the $20-per-ticket amount was UNM's lowest group rate for block ticketing.

In the current contract for UNM-NMSU football games — for contests in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 — 450 complimentary tickets are distributed to the visiting team (the teams alternate home stadiums each year). Per NCAA rules, complimentary tickets are designated for family and friends of student-athletes and coaches before remaining amounts are distributed to other program-adjacent causes.

School band tickets and seating are not explicitly referenced in UNM and NMSU’s current game contract and were not in a contract that covered games from 2018-21.

“From our standpoint, this is common practice,” Nuñez, entering his fifth school year as UNM’s AD, told the Journal. “There’s nothing here that’s saying that we’re trying to not have them here. This is their decision on how they use tickets and we just want to make sure that, as we go forward, that if we need to sit down and talk about this further, then we do.”

In turn, New Mexico State Athletic Director Mario Moccia said this was a departure from previous arrangements between both schools. He said it’s been a “long standing practice” for bands to be included outside of complimentary ticket allotments without it being noted in the existing contract.

“This was just a surprise to us,” Moccia told the Journal. “Obviously, if we had known about this beforehand, we would have made some additional financial arrangements. But we anticipate this getting worked out.”

According to Moccia, NMSU Pride has already booked buses and paid for meals in advance of this weekend’s planned trip to Albuquerque. He added they’re in the process of trying to decide how to pay for what figures to be a $4,000 to $5,000 cost to purchase tickets for a band with 200-plus members after finding out the cost late last week.

“When we have a new contract with UNM, I think the language will clearly state that any bands that come are going to be out of the ticket allotment,” Moccia, entering his 10th season as NMSU’s AD, said. “I don’t begrudge them for doing it, it’s just a departure from a long-standing policy that caught us a little off guard.”

Until the next game contract is drafted, Moccia said NMSU will “mirror” UNM’s contractual interpretation regarding traveling bands and complimentary ticket usage. UNM’s Spirit Marching Band has not traveled to a UNM-NMSU football game in Las Cruces since 2018 and is not planning to return next year, with Nuñez citing decisions made by Spirit leadership.

“There’s nothing to say we can’t go back and address or alter these contracts to accommodate certain things,” he added. “But we have to have a common understanding — if we’re gonna do a band, what’s that band consist of? If we have 100 people and they have 300, it gets into the minutiae (of a reciprocal agreement).”

Until then, it’ll be a matter of how both parties decide to use complimentary tickets.

“If this was a concern on their part, this was something we should have had conversations about a year ago,” Nuñez said.

“At the end of the day, it’s just a little bit of a late departure from the norms,” Moccia said. “And we’re just dealing with it.”