After Steve Davis graduated from Texas in 1979, his professional life carried him from Dallas to San Francisco to Detroit. An avid football fan, he returned to Austin to watch the Longhorns play whenever circumstances allowed.
About 25 years ago, his son followed in his footsteps, attending Texas and joining the Longhorn Band. So Davis decided it was time to make the plunge and purchase season tickets. He’s kept his four seats at Royal-Memorial Stadium ever since. These days, Davis resides in Birmingham, Ala., and works an insurance job while running a nonprofit and heading the local Texas Exes chapter.
He usually makes it to one Texas home game per season, he said. When he doesn’t attend, others, including local disadvantaged families, go in his place.
“I give all the tickets (I don’t use) away,” he said. “I never charge anybody for any kind of ticket. I give them away to kids, families that are here in Birmingham that are Texas fans that have kids who have challenges. They all go, and they send me photos and so forth. That’s what I do with the other tickets.”
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Davis’ four season tickets contribute to the total of 12 purchased this season by the 35242 zip code, which is located in Southeast Birmingham. It’s one of five American zip codes outside Texas with 10 or more Longhorns season ticket holders.
Using public records data provided by the University of Texas, the Austin American-Statesman sorted the number of Longhorns season ticket holders by zip code to determine which areas send the most fans to Royal-Memorial Stadium on game days.
Here’s what we found.
Texas football fans: Which city has the most Longhorns season-ticket holders?
The 10 zip codes that purchased the most Texas season tickets all reside within 20 miles of Royal-Memorial Stadium.
The 78746 zip code, which includes West Lake Hills, bought the most season tickets, with 689. It is followed by 528 season-ticket holders from 78731 (which includes Northwest Hills) and 505 from 78703, which includes Clarksville, Tarrytown and West Austin.
Zip codes from Cedar Park and Pflugerville also ranked within the top 10, joining eight Austin zips.
In total, zip codes that correspond to Austin accounted for at least 6,851 season ticket holders. Because the university’s public records declined to provide statistics for zip codes with fewer than five season ticket holders, this data set includes roughly 25% of Texas’ 68,000-plus total season ticket sales. There are more than 2,500 zip codes in Texas. Less than 500 of them purchased enough season tickets for them to be included in this data set. Season tickets reserved for Texas students are also excluded from this sample.
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Austin more than quadruples the next closest city, which is Houston. The Space City is home to at least 1,531 season-ticket accounts.
At least 1,006 season-ticket holders registered their accounts with Dallas zip codes, with an additional 150 coming from elsewhere in Dallas County.
San Antonio is the next-most prolific city, with at least 812 season tickets on the docket.
The Longhorns also draw some season ticket holders from cities that house other major collegiate programs. At least 43 season tickets are registered in Waco (Baylor), with 14 registered in College Station (Texas A&M) and 12 registered in Lubbock (Texas Tech).
Where Texas football fans from out of state live
Of course, plenty of fans from outside the confines of the Lone Star State hold Texas football season tickets.
The zip code best represented inside Royal-Memorial Stadium on fall Saturdays is 33155, which corresponds to Miami-Dade County in Florida and is home to 22 Longhorns season ticket holders.
The 21146 zip code in Anne Arundel County, Md., ranks second with 14, followed by 90035 in Los Angeles with 13 and Davis’ Birmingham, Ala., zip code, with 12.
“We’ve got a great following here,” Davis said. “A lot of people, they may go to medical school at Texas and work in the healthcare industry. Alabama, particularly Birmingham, is a big, big, financial center as well as a big healthcare center. You will find that a lot of the Texas Exes who still have tickets are in that particular space.”
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