Previewing The Top 5 Priced Conference Tournaments
March 10, 2014
Conference tournaments are the official start to the most exciting time in college basketball. As March Madness officially gets underway, plenty of conference tournament tickets will be available on the secondary market. As the winners of these tournaments will gain an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the prices of NCAA Tournament tickets also hinge on the sale of conference tournament tickets. The top tournament prices are some of the ones many fans would expect to be at the top. The prices below represent for an all-session strip for each tournament.
Big East Tournament | Avg. Price: $796 | Get-in Price: $204
Even after losing some of the top and most recognizable schools, Big East tournament tickets still reign supreme over the conference tournaments even as the number of schools has dropped to just 10 this season. The conference still gets the boost from playing games at Madison Square Garden, which certainly helps. There will be less sessions this year, but the average price has seen no effect due to that loss.
Big 12 Tournament | Avg. Price: $686 | Get-in Price: $262
With three teams ranked in the Top 25, Big 12 tournament tickets have seen a big increase to fill up the Sprint Center in Kansas City. While the Big 12 falls behind the Big East in average price, the get-in price is higher for its all-session strip. Kansas will enter the tournament as the top seed and looking to win their fifth straight conference tournament.
ACC Tournament | Avg. Price: $593 | Get-in Price: $159
The ACC tournament has the potential to be the most exciting conference tournament with a surprise No. 1 seed in Virginia leading the dominant staples of college basketball in Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse. ACC tournament tickets at the Greensboro Coliseum fall below a $600 average, but still remain well above the average for the next tournament. The $159 get-in price for access to all sessions is the lowest of the top five tournaments, though.
Atlantic 10 Tournament | Avg. Price: $502 | Get-in Price: $432
The A-10 tournament returns for its second year at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The prices for Atlantic 10 tournament tickets have gone up 4% over the past week even with only one top 25 ranked school. The get-in price of $432 is easily the most expensive over all conference tournaments for all sessions.
SEC Tournament | Avg. Price: $477 | Get-in Price: $228
The SEC tournament just had what is likely to be their championship game take place over the weekend between Florida and Kentucky. That hasn’t stopped fans from purchasing SEC tournament tickets if they have to see a repeat of Saturday’s game, even though the Gators handled the Wildcats easily. The average price is just below $500 and could continue to drop due to the vast amount of available tickets in a large venue such as the Georgia Dome.
The conference tournaments have brought some of the most exciting games of the year in past seasons. With the all-session strips having high average prices, there’s still plenty of single session tickets available for every tournament. Whichever option is chosen, the excitement of conference tournaments cannot easily be matched, making them good bet to be worth the price of admission.
