Allstate Sugar Bowl officials freed up another 500 tickets for University of Hawai'i football fans to buy and might have more tickets early next week.

UH officials yesterday also closed the waiting list for Sugar Bowl tickets, which had 352 season ticket holders requesting a total of 1,500 tickets.

Because of the demand for UH's 13,500 allotted tickets, no one except season-ticket holders will be able to buy Sugar Bowl tickets through UH, said John McNamara, UH's associate athletic director of external affairs.

It was unclear yesterday whether the additional 500 tickets from the Sugar Bowl will be for seats near the UH cheering section.

"We have not received the (ticket) manifest yet," McNamara said. "It will not be in the section where the initial allocation of tickets was."

Duane Lewis, director of communications for the Sugar Bowl, said the initial 13,500 tickets sent to UH are for seats located in all levels of the east and southeast corners of the stadium, closest to the UH bench.

But McNamara said the important thing is that UH now has more tickets to ease the shortage — UH's original allotment had sold out by Tuesday afternoon.

The additional 500 tickets, McNamara said, are for seats "in the building. At this point, we're interested in getting people into the building."

Out of UH's 13,500 tickets, 5,000 were already committed to various entities, leaving 8,500 for sale to season-ticket holders.

UH was originally contractually obligated to sell 17,500 tickets for its Sugar Bowl game against the University of Georgia.

But UH athletic director Herman Frazier told The Advertiser that Sugar Bowl officials pressured him to take only 13,500 tickets on Saturday, before UH played its final regular season game against Washington. The extra 4,000 Sugar Bowl tickets were allocated to Georgia fans.

The additional 500 tickets that Sugar Bowl officials released to UH yesterday had been set aside for corporate sponsors, community groups and others "that support their game annually," McNamara said.

Sugar Bowl officials plan to meet this weekend to see if their "anticipated need meets their exact need," McNamara said. "If that number comes in lower, that frees up some more tickets. They understand our need and they're doing everything they can to help us."

McNamara did not know how many of the 352 season-ticket holders on the waiting list will now be going to the Louisiana Superdome. They will receive the new tickets in the order they were placed on the waiting list.

"Some requested two, some requested four, some requested six," McNamara said. "We'll go as deep into the waiting list as we possibly can."

Season-ticket holders who will get the new Sugar Bowl tickets will be contacted beginning today.

"The ticket office asks that those on the waiting list not call the ticket office regarding their status," according to a notice on UH's athletic department Web site, www.hawaiiathletics.com.

UH officials yesterday continued to offer to buy back Sugar Bowl tickets from Warrior fans who do not have hotel or airline reservations to New Orleans.

McNamara did not know how many fans have offered to sell back their tickets but said, "I don't know that that number is very high."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.