One of the easiest ways to track fan interest in your program is ticket sales, more specifically with season tickets.

Programs set goals for both total sales and new season ticket sales. Tennessee set lofty goals for both and easily met both of them, the athletics department announced on Wednesday.

Setting goals for 10,000 new season ticket holders, they blew that number out of the water by selling 16,780, nearly 168 percent of their goal.

In total season tickets, the school sold nearly 5 percent more of their 56,000 goal with sales of 58,871.

All of this is a part of Athletic Director Danny White’s five-year strategy plan called Rise Glorious, where it will elevate Tennessee to grow the resources at the university so they can compete for championships.

“Vol Nation has made an extraordinarily strong statement about their excitement for this team,” White said. “We were optimistic that we could reach our Rise Glorious season-ticket goal of 56,000 by Sept. 1, but we’ve sold close to 17,000 new season-tickets to push us past that goal with still a month left until kickoff. There are very few fanbases worldwide capable of delivering that rate of growth.

“That unwavering commitment and support from our fans sends an extremely powerful message to our current players—along with the country’s top recruits—about the possibilities and opportunities that exist for student-athletes here at Tennessee.”

Needless to say, this is a massive success for the Volunteers and they can improve on that number with limited season tickets remaining.