Tickets to January’s national championship game are going for more than triple the price they did for the Nov. 5 showdown between LSU and Alabama, according to information compiled on SeatGeek.com.
The website, a search engine that pulls together ticket listings from all major secondary ticket websites, showed the average listing of tickets was $1,850. The average selling price of tickets three days prior to the Nov. 5 game was $606.
Will Flaherty, director of communications for SeatGeek.com, said this year’s national championship game would be the most expensive college football game the company has seen in its three years of existence.
“I don’t expect the price of tickets to drop below $1,850,” Flaherty said. “Having the opportunity to see your favorite team play for a national championship is a once in a lifetime thing. There’s no denying that you’ll have to take finances into account when deciding about attending, but, based on personal experience, this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Prior to Nov. 5, Flaherty said ticket prices to the national championship game were averaging $1,545. In the period between the “Game of the Century” and last Saturday, the last day of the college football regular season, Flaherty said ticket prices were averaging $1,950.
“It’s like a switch flipped once it was clear that the game would be LSU-Alabama again,” he said.
The two biggest volume days the website has seen were last Saturday and Sunday, Flaherty said, when the average price of tickets was $1,978. Since then, ticket prices have fallen slightly, which Flaherty says is because many die-hard fans purchased tickets the second they knew their team was playing for the championship.
“Once the announcement is made, fans burst,” he said. “They say, ‘I’m going; I’m getting tickets right now,’ and they purchase their tickets.”
Dylan Till, a sophomore majoring in environment science, said he wasn’t surprised that tickets to the game were going for as much as they are. He said he wouldn’t be interested in tickets if their price stays where it is now.
“As a currently unemployed college student, I couldn’t afford a ticket at that price, but even if I could I would find it hard not to keep my money and just tailgate at the game instead,” Till said. “The most I personally would pay would be $550, and that is the extreme end of what I would feel comfortable paying.”
Prior to the rematch, Flaherty said the website’s record for highest average ticket price was $1,351 for last year’s BCS National Championship.
He said certain factors weigh in on the game’s ticket prices, especially the fact that both Alabama and LSU have loyal fan bases, and that the Superdome is a drivable distance away from both schools, which ultimately allows people to spend more money on their game tickets.
“Tickets to this game are definitely in demand,” Flaherty said. “It should be exciting and fun to watch.”
