Most students paid $5 for a ticket to Saturday’s game against LSU, but for some fans, the cost of attendance may be hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Statewide website AL.com reported there were two tickets for sale on Stubhub.com for a seat in row 25 of the lower level north end zone for $10,423.14 each. The tickets are no longer available.
Will Flaherty, director of communications for SeatGeek.com, a search engine that pulls together ticket listings from all major secondary ticket websites, said the average ticket price of sold tickets on their website is $606.
For comparison, tickets to Game 7 of this year’s World Series averaged $601 on SeatGeek, tickets to Game 5 of the NBA Finals averaged $686, tickets to last year’s BCS National Championship game averaged $1,351, and tickets to last year’s Super Bowl averaged $3,067.13, Flaherty said.
“This is a demand we’ve never seen in our two years of doing this,” Flaherty said. “The ticket prices are astronomically expensive, but there are tickets still available. I think it really speaks to just how great these two teams are. They have two loyal fan bases and are a drivable distance away, which really allows people to spend more money on their game tickets.”
Many UA students have posted their tickets on websites such as StubHub.com and Facebook Marketplace to make a profit.
J Finley, a senior majoring in telecommunication and film, said he was selling his ticket to Saturday’s game for $300.
“This ticket and game tickets in general are a great source for extra income,” Finley said. “I don’t have a job, so this is basically like my paycheck. This ticket is one of the most valuable tickets I’ve sold in my four years of flipping tickets. I’d rather watch the game in the comfort of my home instead of standing up for three hours.”
UA student Corey Neill said he was asking for $300 because that’s how much it’s worth to him to miss the game.
“I could definitely use the extra money for bills, but I would also love to go to the game myself,” Neill said. “I can remember paying $230, including an upgrade fee, to go to the Tennessee game when I had just transferred in and feel like this is a much more important game. I think it’s a lot of money for one game, but at the same time, I could see myself spending just as much if I didn’t have a ticket.”
Doug Walker, associate athletics director at the University, said the face value of tickets to attend Saturday’s game is $85, regardless of whether the seats are on the 50-yard line or in the upper deck.
The tickets to Saturday’s game sold out before the team ever stepped onto the field this season, and no public sale took place, he said.
Media requests for the Alabama-LSU game have also increased, Walker said.
For a normal game, anywhere between 300 and 350 credentials are given out. For the Iron Bowl, 400-450 credentials are distributed. But for Saturday’s “Game of the Century,” Walker said he expects credential requests to end up in the 625 range.
“Everyone knows the winner of this game is in the driver’s seat to the national championship,” Flaherty said. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that we’ll see prices like this again for the SEC Championship game and even the national championship game.”
