Ticket sellers smiling with Kentucky, Final Four field
If you were hoping to buy a relatively cheap ticket for the Final Four in Indianapolis, the results of the Elite Eight games were almost as bad as it could get.
"By any measure, this is the priciest Final Four market we've seen over the last five years," said Connor Gregoire, spokesman for online broker SeatGeek.
Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Duke have everything.
First, there's a compelling story line --- Kentucky going for the first undefeated season since Indiana in 1976. Under any circumstance, the Wildcats are the gold standard for local secondary ticket market. This takes it to another level.
"There will be more Kentucky fans in the stadium than fans of the other three schools combined, I'm sure," said Renny Harrison, owner of FanFare Tickets in Carmel.
Wisconsin and Michigan State, like Kentucky, are within easy driving distance for an event with little time for planning. Duke is college basketball royalty.
The only thing that could have made demand higher is if Louisville had beaten Michigan State instead of losing in overtime Sunday. That would have created the potential of the arch rivals meeting in the national championship game.
"Having Louisville and Kentucky would have been one of the best of all time," said Jeff McGuinness, owner of 317 Tickets in Indianapolis. "But Michigan State is a good consolation prize."
Gregoire said SeatGeek's average sale price for a "strip" --- Saturday's semifinals and the championship two days later --- was $1,378 as of early Sunday night.
"It's the UK fan base that is driving the record demand we're seeing thus far," Gregoire said, "and they seem fairly confident they'll see the Wildcats play two games in Indy."
Harrison noticed the same thing.
"After the Kentucky game was over (Saturday), we saw people buy both sessions," he said. "But Wisconsin fans were buying just the first session (semifinals). We have a lot of sales where we're sending off tickets to Wisconsin and full books (for the semifinals and championship) to Kentucky."
Harrison said the lowest ticket prices at Lucas Oil Stadium, which will seat about 70,000, was about $390 for the semifinals and $290 for the championship.
Harrison said the increased demand for tickets has been gradual because anticipation has been building for weeks for a potential perfect season for Kentucky.
McGuinness, however, said that last weekend he sold two tickets for Saturday's semifinals at $350 each. Online brokers, he said, were selling similar seats Sunday night for double that amount.
PRICES FOR SEMIFINALS AND CHAMPIONSHIP
Here are SeatGeek's average sale prices for tickets to the national semifinals and championship:
- 2015 - Indianapolis, $1,378
- 2014 - Dallas, $1,141
- 2013 - Atlanta, $1,021
- 2011 - Houston, $621
- 2012 - New Orleans, $486
Contact Mark Alesia at (317) 444-6311. Follow him on Twitter: @markalesia. Read his other stories.