Mike Holder has a message for University of Oklahoma fans balking at paying top-dollar for Saturday's Bedlam matchup at Boone Pickens Stadium.

If you don't like it ...

"Good, stay home. Don't come," the Oklahoma State University athletic director said Monday. "I don't care if any of them show up. Just bring that football team out here."

This week, the Sooner Nation is finding out why some of the Cowboy faithful have begrudged Holder this season.

Unashamedly increased ticket prices.

As is typically the case with Bedlam in Stillwater, OSU has sold all but a handful of the seats in the stadium's lower bowl, including the entire allotment of opponent seats reserved for Sooner fans. Come Saturday, that portion of the stadium likely will be packed and rocking.

The club-level seating, however, is a different story.

There still are more than 1,000 seats available on the stadium's north side — 47 at the $250 level, 126 at the $300 level and about 1,000 at the $600 level.

If OSU doesn't sell the tickets within the next five days, that will make it a clean sweep for nonsellouts at Boone Pickens Stadium this season — and the first true Bedlam bust in the past several years.

"We're not going to discount any prices to try to fill (the stadium) up," Holder said. "If it doesn't sell out, it doesn't sell out. It's not the end of the world. We haven't sold out one all year.

"We don't rely on them for anything. Are you kidding me? Rely on OU?" [Your problem is you can't rely on OSU.]

Tom Johnson, who manages the OSU ticket office, said comparing previous Bedlam games to this weekend's in terms of attendance is like comparing apples to oranges. The last time the Sooners and Cowboys met in Stillwater, there weren't club seats on the stadium's north side — OSU fell less than 50 shy of selling out the south side club — and four years ago, there wasn't any club seating at all.

Back then, not selling out the club level was not a possibility.

"People are buying them now; they're just not selling at a real high rate because the tickets are more expensive," Johnson said. "But the thing is, the club area is a different animal than the lower bowl. It's not like to like." [Hope you followed that explanation.]

OSU usually packages a lower-bowl OU ticket with a couple of seats for games against weak or nonconference opponents. This year, the three-game mini-pack included tickets to Missouri State, Baylor and Oklahoma for $160. On Sept. 18, tickets to Bedlam were released for single-game sale at $100.

OSU and OU fans alike gobbled up those remaining tickets, leaving the expensive club level to latecomers, not all of which seem eager to pay the markup.

"They're fairly priced," Holder said. "All they are is one-sixth of the donor seating cost, plus the cost of one-sixth of the season ticket price. We're not going to discount those seats. How would you feel if you were a loyal Cowboy supporter who bought the season tickets and then for one game you allowed somebody to come in there and sit for half price? [You'd feel like an idiot. But then you'd feel like an idiot anyway, for paying what you did.]

"That's just not right in my world."

Club seats aren't the only thing adding stress to the tenuous Bedlam atmosphere this week. [Not sure what the writer means here, but "tenuous" isn't the right word. ]

Visiting student tickets are more expensive, too.

OU student John Portman paid $88 for a student seat at the Red River Shootout in October. He thought that was the steepest ticket price he'd have to pay all season. He was wrong.

Oklahoma State is asking $100 for visiting students this weekend. And Portman, for one, is miffed.

"Bedlam's a big deal, but asking $20 more than an OU-Texas ticket is ridiculous," he said. "I don't know why they would raise prices like that. No one wants to give that much money to a school that can't fill its own stadium." [Ouch. Truth hurts.]

Not that Holder is concerned with pleasing OU fans. In fact, he'd rather sell tickets to those decked in orange and black.

"It's a different world up here now," Holder said. "This isn't the same old Oklahoma State. Look in that (west) endzone. My gosh. Our tickets are less expensive than the ones at OU. They sell 84,000 of them. We should be able to sell 44,000. [Yeah, but you can't. 'Cause you live in 'your world,' and everybody else lives in this world.]

"We're not going to cut ticket prices. If we want to compete with the best teams in this conference, we've got to increase our ticket prices. If we start winning, (fans) will come out."