Tickets for Carrier Classic on Yorktown could cost $500 apiece

It probably will cost big bucks to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball teams play Marquette and Notre Dame in the second annual Carrier Classic set for Nov. 9 aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown.

Mike Whalen, founder and managing partner of Morale Entertainment Foundation, which is organizing the basketball doubleheader, said tickets could cost $500 apiece.

Whalen said seating capacity for the games will range between 3,700 and 4,300, and that active duty military personnel and veterans will receive 25 to 50 percent of the tickets at no charge.

The remaining tickets will be sold to the public for about $500 each. Proceeds will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project and Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.

“There’s all kind of regulations about giving military gifts,” Whalen said Tuesday. “We have to check out the way gifts are done. We’re having our lawyers work that out.”

The Ohio State men will play Marquette at 7:08 p.m., while the Ohio State women will play Notre Dame. It hasn’t been decided if the women’s game will be played before or after the men’s game.

“We are waiting to announce the tipoff time of the women’s game,” said Whalen, who attended Notre Dame in the 1970s. “We will announce our television partner when we visit Charleston next week.”

Whalen said meetings are scheduled with state and county officials, as well as the Mount Pleasant fire marshal, to discuss the logistics of the event.

“We are excited to be in Charleston,” Whalen said. “And we’re as excited as heck about the teams involved.”

The Carrier Classic made its debut last season when the Michigan State and North Carolina men’s teams squared off aboard the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in San Diego.