Prices rise for Alabama-Clemson title game tickets
Alabama-Clemson II appears to be a costly sequel.
Ticket prices on the secondary market are trending higher than last year’s College Football Playoff national championship game that featured the same two teams, driven largely by how close Tampa — the site of the Jan. 9 contest — is to both fan bases.
“We did the math, and the average distance between Tampa and both schools is 579 miles,” TicketIQ spokesperson Jesse Lawrence told USA TODAY Sports. “The average distance to Arizona where last year’s game was held was about 2,000 miles. Since they’ll be driving instead of flying, there’s more money to spend on tickets.”
TicketIQ, an online ticket tracking and sale site, said a week out from last year there were about 4,000 more tickets on the market and the cheapest seats were nearly half the price compared to this year’s game. The average price for tickets sold on SeatGeek, another popular ticket site, as of Monday was $1,125, in line with this point last year.
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But the average price for a ticket sold at University of Phoenix Stadium for last January’s game won by Alabama 45-40 dropped nearly in half ($607) overall, according to SeatGeek.
“I don't anticipate we will see a drop anything like last year with the game in a much better location for both of these fan bases,” SeatGeek spokesperson Chris Leyden said in an email.
Prices have gone up about 16% since New Year’s Eve when Alabama and Clemson won their respective semifinal games, driven largely by demand amongst Tigers fans.
The majority of the traffic on TicketIQ and SeatGeek for the game is coming from South Carolina where Clemson is located.
“Prices for tickets on Clemson’s half of the stadium are about 20% more expensive than Alabama’s side,” Lawrence said.
The first College Football Playoff National Championship game was the most expensive of the first two title games, part of a four-team playoff system that replaced the Bowl Championship Series. The January 2015 game at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, featured Ohio State and Oregon and had an average asking price of $858 and a get-in price (the cheapest tickets available) $317, according to TicketIQ.