Help may finally be on the way for numerous UW football season-ticket holders who decided not to renew their seats because of the recent economic crisis.

The Dawgs Supporting Dawgs program, facilitated by private donations, will keep season-ticket holders who may have recently lost their jobs or suffered in other ways due to the economy in Husky Stadium for the upcoming season, and ensure that their spot in the line of ticket-seniority remains, provided they are able to purchase seats for the following year.

Ed Erickson, assistant director of fund development, said that the initiative started after the athletic department began to notice a large number of long-time season ticket holders jumping ship after the 2008 season.

“We went through our renewal process, and we realized we had a lot of our longtime season ticket holders [leave],” Erickson said. “They gave us their stories of life-changing events due to the economic problems, and usually one of the first things to go is the sports tickets.”

John Caple, a ticket holder for 31 years until this season, was one of them.

He had seen it all and been through the ups and downs of Husky football history, until he lost his job in March and decided football was one expense he could do away with.

But when Caple heard about Dawgs Supporting Dawgs, he called Erickson to plead his case.

“I wasn’t looking for any sympathy,” Caple said. “But if they were really looking to help people out, I wanted to make sure they knew I was interested.”

The program itself is managed by the athletic department, meaning it will determine who will receive two free season tickets for the season and in what section of the stadium, but the funding is all from private donations.

A link on the UW athletics Web site allows people to donate in increments of $50 and $100, and Husky Fever, a private support organization, has already chipped in $50,000 for the first 100 accounts, Erickson said.

David Gravenkemper, assistant athletic director for ticket sales, said the program is a way to fill seats for the upcoming season and noted that season-ticket sales are at about 90 percent of last year’s levels. He expects the UW to sell another 1,000 tickets before the season begins in September, still putting it below its goal of 42,000.

Thus, giving aid to those account holders who had trouble paying shouldn’t have an effect on seating and capacity for the 2009 season.

“It’s one of those things where it’s probably more economic,” Gravenkemper said. “Maybe we wouldn’t have taken a closer look at it if our ticket sales are higher. But we’re trying to find an avenue to assist people who have had tickets for a long time.”

But the program is only slated to last one year, so if some account-holders are unable to pay after this season, they will ultimately lose their ticket seniority.

“We’re looking at this as a one-year bridge or scholarship to help a lot of our long-time accounts,” Erickson said. “[Those] who needed one year scholarships to weather the storm.”

Caple said he feels optimistic about getting the tickets and his seniority back, but said as of right now, he doesn’t see his situation improving in a year.

Despite that, he figures that the UW is looking to fill Husky Stadium this year, something that might be difficult to do because of the team’s on-field disaster last year—a far cry from the way things were for the majority of Caple’s years as a season-ticket holder.

“Back then, if someone wanted to drop out, they had people lined up to take their place,” Caple said. “But it sounds like they’re really concerned the direction things are going as far as attendance going down, and people like myself having to drop out.”

Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@dailyuw.com.