How big a crowd will be on hand at Tropicana Field on Saturday to see USF and Memphis in the inaugural St. Petersburg Bowl? Bowl officials gave their first ticketing update on Thursday afternoon, saying that 22,000 seats have been sold for Saturday's game -- two-thirds of the stadium's 33,000-seat capacity for football.

What remains unclear is how they arrived at that 22,000 total -- USF and Memphis are each responsible for selling 10,000 seats, so the figure could simply account for those seats, plus an additional 2,000 tickets sold. USF has been given an additional 1,000 tickets beyond its original allotment, but Memphis sold less than 2,000 tickets, returning the rest for sale to the general public. Brett Dulaney, the bowl's executive director, did not explain how the 22,000 figure was reached.

For a bowl to keep its license from the NCAA, it must maintain a three-year average of at least 25,000 fans. The other first-year bowl, the EagleBank Bowl at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., announced Wednesday that more than 30,000 tickets have been sold.