Tickets are on sale for the first stop of the 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series in Knoxville, Tennessee from January 9th-12th. While ticket prices vary from meet to meet, the series-opening stop in Knoxville has prices comparable to those in last year’s opener in Austin.
A big change is that premium tickets are on sale, following a national trend at USA Swimming-run meets of segmenting seats into different price tiers. Even then, however, the adult all-sessions premium ticket price is just $1 more than the adult all-sessions general admission price in Austin last year.
2019 TYR Pro Swim Series – Knoxville Ticket Prices:
- All Sessions Premium – Adult: $85
- All Sessions Premium – Child: $60
- All Sessions General Admission – Adult – $60
- All Sessions General Admission – Child – $45
- All Sessions General Admission – Tennessee Student – $30
- Prelims/Wednesday Timed Finals – Adult – $10
- Prelims/Wednesday Timed Finals – Child – $5
- Finals – Adult – $15
- Finals – Child – $10
All 5 meets have new hosts this year after USA Swimming opened up a new bidding process, though in general the venues are smaller than last year with several of the country’s biggest pools, including pools at Georgia Tech, Texas, and at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, not earning the right to host this year. Tennessee has the biggest permanent grandstand among the 2019 hosts with room for 1,800 off-deck. Last year’s opener, Austin, seats 2,100.
Comparison of TYR Pro Swim Series Ticket Prices
| Prelims Adults | Prelims Discounted | Finals Adults | Finals Discounted | All Sessions Adult | All Sessions Dicsounted | All Sessions Adult Premium | All Sessions Discounted Premium | |
| Austin 2018 | 15 | 10 | 15 | 10 | 84 | 50 | NA | NA |
| Atlanta 2018 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 60 | 45 | NA | NA |
| Mesa 2018 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Indianapolis 2018 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 5 | 60 | NA | NA | NA |
| Santa Clara 2018 | 5 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 35 | NA | NA | NA |
| Columbus 2018 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 5 | 60 | NA | NA | NA |
| Knoxville 2019 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 60 | 45 | 85 | 60 |
Full 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series Schedule
| JANUARY 9-12 | KNOXVILLE, TENN. | ALLAN JONES INTERCOLLEGIATE AQUATIC CENTER |
| March 6-9 | Des Moines, Iowa | MidAmerican Energy Aquatic Center at the Wellmark YMCA |
| April 10-13 | Richmond, Va. | Collegiate School Aquatics Center |
| May 17-19 | Bloomington, Ind. | Counsilman Billingsley Aquatics Center |
| June 12-15 | Clovis, Calif. | Clovis North High School Aquatics Complex |
The U of Tenn swim team is also away for a travel meet that weekend so there goes another couple dozen swimmers participating and some local families who might have been there.
Let’s all go to Knoxville in January – YEAAHHH!!
It is going to be interesting on ticket sales in these smaller metropolitan areas. I can’t imagine, besides a few family members, anyone flying to a meet. And even family members are going to look at what else they can do on a trip. Austin, Mesa, Santa Clara, etc. have lots of other things to do. I assume most of the tickets are sold to locals and local family members. Larger metro areas have many more club teams and easy for people in nearby cities to drive up to (Austin for instance could draw from San Antonio, Houston with a reasonable drive). I just don’t see how these meets are going to generate money for the hosts.
With smaller teams hosting they are going to be using every available person to volunteer and help run the meet which will also cut down on ticket sales. The parents that might jump in the car with their kids to watch finals are now going to be working at finals. No need to get a ticket if you are volunteering from the best seat in the house.