Ticket Prices For The National Championship Are Falling FAST, and The Stupid NCAA is to Blame
Last year at this time, the College Football Playoff title game was one of the hottest tickets in sports, with the price of the cheapest seat peaking at around $1,700 on StubHub.
Alabama and Clemson will meet again for the title this year, and let’s just say demand has softened.
For the relatively low price of $140.60, plus another $40 or so in fees, you can buy an upper-deck ticket to this year’s title game on StubHub. The get-in price is even cheaper on SeatGeek at $134. The face value for those seats is $475.
For comparison’s sake, the cheapest StubHub ticket for Sunday’s NFL wild-card game between the Bears and Eagles in Chicago is $189 as of this writing, while the get-in price for Saturday night’s performance of “Hamilton” in Pittsburgh is $195.
Oh boy, this is NOT a good look if you are the NCAA. And usually the NCAA doesn’t really care how things “look”. They just care about the $$$ (as long as they are the ones getting it, not the players). But in this situation, it’s a bad look and a bad economical situation. And like usual, they have no one to blame but their own stupid decision making. So let’s think, NCAA, why would the demand in tickets be so low for this game that the cheapest seat on SeatGeek is $125 each???
To be clear, last year the cheapest ticket in town was $1,700. A $1,500 difference!! So what gives? Hmmmm. Let’s take a look at some of the circumstances. The first one, to quote my great uncle that works in the rental property business, is “location, location, location!”.
Pictured above is a map of the United States of America. The two teams that are playing in the National Championship reside in the rose colored states in the bottom right hand corner labeled “Alabama” and “South Carolina”. The two schools are about 4.5 hours apart. A day trip. Wouldn’t even need to stop to go to the bathroom. However, the National Championship game is being played in that big green state all the way to the left. They call it “California”. Now that green state is approximately 2,600 miles from Clemson and 2,300 miles from Alabama. You can either drive 35 hours there, or you can pay about $1,200 in airfare to fly there. Remember the clientele we’re working with here, too.
I’m sure Billy and Betty have $1,200 saved up from their family reunion/wedding to go fly across the country, but what about the casual fan? Let alone the $500 a night to stay in San Francisco. It just doesn’t make sense to have the game there. And I know what everyone’s going to say, how is the NCAA supposed to know that Alabama and Clemson are going to make the championship game. Haha, okay. Good point. You never know! Maybe next year we’ll have a couple northerners in the big game!
I kid, I kid. But for real, the game should always be in Atlanta or New Orleans. That gives you a good chance that an SEC school is nearby, and even if an Ohio State or someone makes it down, that’s not as bad as 35 hours to California. No one can spend that much time going to a game, especially on a MONDAY! I don’t care what you tell me, the game needs to be played on a Saturday. College football should be played on a Saturday. Care to respond, Mark Emmert?
And finally, I’m sure championship fatigue has something to do with the lack of interest. Alabama and Clemson. Clemson and Alabama. It’s every damn year. We need to spice it up somehow. And I have a crazy idea that might just work. How about an 8-team playoff? I know, it seems crazy now, but I think there would be some real interest in these matchups if we got the ball rolling.
And yes, Alabama and Clemson will still probably come out of that. With Georgia getting a 4th close loss to improve their resume. But it’ll 1000% generate more interest from more fan bases. And then we could play that game on a Saturday night in the south. Look, I work 3 jobs right now but I’d be willing to quit all three if the NCAA offered me $50K a year to just sit in a room and tell them when they’re doing something stupid. I’m not even talking about being the one coming up with the ideas. I don’t even want to give feedback. I just want to sit in a chair, wait til they come up with a decision or an idea, and then tell them NO if it’s stupid. And you guys are probably sitting at home thinking, well Ohio’s Tate, I would want to do that same job. Why would they ever offer that for $50K? Umm that’s only like 30 tickets to last years game. Or 500 to this years.