In the midst of March Madness, Selection Sunday it is, and here are the opening round match-ups! FanSnap has searched the web and found lots of great tickets for NCAA hoops fans everywhere. Need to make flight, hotel, or car travel arrangements? Check out Nextag Travel!
At this point last year, Final Four Semifinal tickets averaged $460. In 2009, Saturday tickets averaged $661. Right now, 2011 NCAA Men’s Final Four Semifinals tickets have an average list price of $350. The lowest price tickets are $38.
At this point last year, Final Four Championship tickets averaged $230. In 2009, Monday tickets averaged $374. Right now, Final Four Championship tickets have an average list price of $201. The lowest price tickets are $40.
Original post starts here…
The last four teams in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament are set. Kentucky, UConn, Butler and VCU are ready to dance. This is one of the most improbable Final Four’s since they started seeding teams back in 1979. If you add up the seeds, this is also the highest seeded final the tournament has ever seen.
Who could have predicted a VCU-Butler matchup in this year’s Final Four? Well… hardly anyone. ESPN reports that only two people — out of 5.9 million — correctly picked all 4 of the remaining teams in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Only 1,093 had three of the four teams correctly, a testament to the madness that was this March.
Given the small market nature of the teams, NCAA Men’s Final Four tickets are not in as high of demand as years past.
In 2009, when North Carolina beat Michigan State for the title, tickets for the championship game as of March 29 were averaging $430. Tickets to last year’s title game between Duke and Butler were averaging $287. This year, NCAA Men’s National Championship tickets are averaging $250: that’s a 46% decrease in two years.
On March 25, tickets to the title game were averaging $358. After the teams were decided, ticket prices dropped 30%.
NCAA Mens Final Four tickets held an average price of around $430 through the weekend: most likely, fans may feel that the UCONN-Kentucky matchup is really the title game.
This is not to suggest that the action in Houston this weekend will be anything short of enthralling. It is just the nature of sports that smaller market teams do not have the expansive fan base to cover say, the trek from Richmond, VA to Houston, TX.
The Final Four is one of the biggest events of the year: don’t miss your chance to find some great tickets at FanSnap.
Get in on tickets, Lower Level Baseline 109, for 42% off the average broker price. That’ll set you back only $179, a small price to pay for great NCAA Tournament tickets.
Snag tickets in Upper Level Baseline 219 for $99, a quarter off the average price of similar tickets.
NCAA conference titles have been decided, bubbles have been burst, and the bracket is set. That can only mean one thing: it’s time to dance. The best 68 college basketball teams in the country will duke it out for a spot in the Final Four in Houston.
The defending champions, the Duke Blue Devils, secured a number one seed, joined by the Ohio State Buckeyes, Kansas Jayhawks, and Pittsburgh Panthers.
Tulsa has the hottest NCAA March Madness ticket of Round 2 with an average ticket price of $748. That might be due to the fact that the site (in the heart of Big 12 country) hosts both Kansas and Texas. Jayhawks and Longhorns fans don’t have far to go to catch their team, and the high demand for tickets is good evidence that there will be plenty of burnt orange and blue in Tulsa this weekend.
Cleveland comes in second. No surprise here, considering the Ohio State Buckeyes play as the number one seed at this venue. Columbus is just a few hours away, so you know Buckeyes fans will be out in full force.
Check back at FanSnap for the best possible NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament tickets, and for continued coverage of the event all the way through the Final Four.
All four Final Four teams are now on their way to Indianapolis and all the waiting and all the nail-biting is over… for the moment. Duke, West Virginia, Butler and Michigan State fans are booking tickets to Indianapolis. Well, maybe not Butler fans since the Final Four will be essentially a home game for Butler. All are searching for Final Four tickets. Tickets to the semis are up $100 since yesterday when Butler and West Virginia clinched Final Four berths.
Lowest price Final Four tickets:
Semifinals-only (both games Sat.) = $308
Championship-only (Mon) = $115
Full Strip (all games, both days) = $317
The NCAA tournament is unique in that hoops fans have very little time to make ticket and travel arrangements once the pairings are revealed, and throughout the month they must react quickly if they are fortunate enough to have their team advance through the bracket.Part of what drives fans to madness in March is the exercise of checking ticket site after ticket site to try and find the set of tickets that best meet their budget.
Although the average prices are trending up, there are still values to be had. FanSnap makes it easy for fans to spot the best value tickets. We make them so hard to miss. Take a look at the Final Four semifinals tickets search page. FanSnap is showing fans tickets that are 30% to 45% lower than the average price of comparable tickets.
FanSnap highlights the best ticket values at any given moment. Fans can buy on their own schedule rather than waiting to purchase in an attempt to get a better value, and risking missing out on the best, or any, tickets altogether. Fans searching all NCAA tournament events will see FanSnap’s convenient up-to-the-moment summary table of the available best values at different price points.
Fans can find:
- Lower level end tickets from $658 to $2,200
- Lower level middle tickets from $2,347 to $8,800
- Upper level middle tickets from $437 to $3,299
- Upper level end tickets from $317 to $2,200
Top states searching for Final Four tickets:
1. Indiana
2. West Virginia
3. Michigan
4. Illinois
5. Kentucky
Ticket prices for comparable events:
- BCS National Championship ticket = $865 – $1,000
- World Series game tickets = $910 – $1,100
- Super Bowl tickets = $2,200 – $3,200
- Olympic Gold Medal Hockey (U.S. v Canada) tickets = $3,600 – $4,300
- 2010 MLB Opening Day (Yankees @ Red Sox) tickets = $251
- One round at the Masters = $750
The Kentucky Wildcats were the third 1-seed to get knocked out of the NCAA Tournament before the Final Four. Kentucky, like Syracuse and Kansas were thought to be locks for the Final Four. All were 1-seeds. All were sent home much earlier than their fans hoped. Duke, The only remaining 1-seed in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is the fourth and final team to make the Final Four in Indianapolis. Find more than 8,000 Final Four tickets from 14 ticket sites with FanSnap.
The best NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in recent memory rolls on. With each upset, we think we’ve seen it all and then teams like Kansas and Villanova lose and teams like Cornell and Washington cruise to victory. Ah, March, please don’t end. Our brackets are long ago busted and we don’t care. We just hope the madness of the buzzer beaters and upsets of Round 1 & 2 continue in the regionals.
The hoops gods just keep on giving in the Regionals. Syracuse, another 1-seed falls. 2-seed Kansas State survives Xavier in double OT! We can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Midwest Region tickets
For eight teams, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament continues in St. Louis for the Midwest Regional games at America’s Center – Edward Jones Dome.
Tickets to the all Tournament games in St Louis start at $163 and average $330
Friday-only tickets start at $120 and average $228
The Mountaineers crushed Wildcat Final-Four dreams (expectations might be a better word). Kentucky, like Syracuse and Kansas were thought to be locks for the Final Four. All were 1-seeds. All were sent home much earlier than their fans hoped. Only Duke remains as a 1-seed in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament — playing essentially the hometown favorite Bayler (Waco isn’t far from Houston) for the South Region title in an Elite 8 matchup Sunday.
On Saturday, March 27, 2-seed, West Virginia upset 1-seed Kentucky by a score of 73-66, to win the NCAA East Regional in Syracuse and a berth in the Final Four. So fan, West Virginia and Butler have punched dance cards for Indianapolis.
Final Four Tickets start at $255 and average $500. Currently, we’re finding 4,000+ tickets from 8 tickets site representing hundreds of sellers.
FanSnap makes it easy for fans to spot the best value tickets. We make them so hard to miss. Take a look at the Final Four semifinal ticket search page. FanSnap shows tickets listed for 38% below the average asking price in two different sections.
The ticket market is dynamic. Tickets are being sold and new tickets become available all the time. This means the best value tickets are always changing.
Earlier today, Kentucky was #2 on the list. Since West Virginia beat Kentucky in the Elite eight, West Virginia jumped up to the #2 slot from #9. This list will likely look different on Sunday night.
The number 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but still thought of as a Cinderella team is mid-major Butler. The 4,200-student, Butler University is located just seven miles from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the site of the 2010 NCAA Final Four. The home team Bulldogs will have a jump on Final Four Tickets given Butler is the first of the Elite 8 to secure a spot in the Final Four.
On Saturday, March 27, 5-seed, Butler upset 2-seed Kansas St. by a score of 63-56 in Salt Lake City to represent the West Region in the Final Four.
Final Four Tickets start at $231 and average $500. Currently, we’re finding 4,000+ tickets from 8 tickets site representing hundreds of sellers.
The average Final Four ticket price can be interesting in the broadest sense, but fans want values. FanSnap makes it easy to snap up the best value tickets because we make them so hard to miss. Take a look at the Final Four semifinal ticket search page. FanSnap shows tickets listed for 38% below the average asking price in two different sections.
The ticket market is dynamic. Tickets are being sold and new tickets become available all the time. This means the best value tickets are always changing.
Tim Defrisco/Getty Images Jerry Tarkanian famously chewed towels while head coach at UNLV
Okay, we admit, we got swept up in the Sweet 16 and are grabbing a fresh towel to chew on while we watch the Elite 8 games today and tomorrow. (Tip o’ the cap to Jerry Tarkanian for the towel idea.) Couple that with the fact that fans keep asking how to score Final Four tickets and it got us to thinking we should whip up a how-to video.
“How to find Final Four tickets,” it seems to us, isn’t the right question. The better question, in our minds, is how to find Final Four tickets at the best value? How do you get the tickets you want, when you want them at the best value?
We know Duke, Kansas State, Butler, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan State and Baylor fans are anxiously awaiting their games today and tomorrow to see if their teams can punch their tickets to Indianapolis for the Final Four. Excited fans will be plotting routes to Indianapolis on maps, or consulting Kayak.com for travel plans and coming to FanSnap in search of Final Four tickets. Here are a few tips for scoring those just-right Final Four tickets.
We admit, we won’t win an Oscar for this video. Can you do better? Shoot us a link to your video on how to use FanSnap and we’ll blog about it, or shoot an email to christian@fansnap.com about doing a guest post.
We’re not all sports-theater-concert-tickets all the time. For example, we heard there was some debate in Washington and around the country about health care reform legislation. We heard, proponents say it will insure 30+ million more people and opponents call it a government takeover of 1/6 of the U.S. economy, but how just how do politics stack up to major sporting events?
Sure, we here at FanSnap can tell you who is searching for what tickets, which events are hot and how to find great ticket values, but for this question, we had to turn to Google. Hey Google, how many people are searching for the term “health care bill” vs how many people are searching for “NCAA Tournament”?
Yes, we know there were some major announcements made on the health care debate and NCAA Regionals don’t start up again until tomorrow, but still, how do they compare?
source: google.com
The red line is interest over time in “NCAA Tournament.” The spike on March 14 is from people searching for NCAA brackets just after the selection Sunday telecast (do people still say telecast?)… err TV show when the NCAA Tournament teams were announced. The second red spike occurred when the NCAA Round 1 & 2 games were played.
The blue line represents interest in “Health Care Bill.” Interest went up when it was announced that it would be passed.
Will we see another spike for the NCAA Regionals and Final Four? We think so. Will interest in “Health Care Bill” continue up at the same pace? It will be interesting to see.
If you landed on this post and were hoping to bone up on the recently passed Health Care legislation, check out the linked coverage on healthcare-economist.com. They link to a wide variety of perspectives.
If you were looking for NCAA Tournament tickets, you’re in luck. FanSnap is a ticket search engine. Fans can find tickets from sites across the web here.
To read more on the NCAA Tournament and Final Four tickets, check out these posts:
Sixteen teams are still dancing on the road to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis — the site of the Final Four round of the 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The 2010 NCAA Tournament has been as exciting as any we can remember and the Regionals haven’t even started yet. Early exits by Kansas and ‘Nova blew up brackets and shifted ticket searches away from Lawrence, Kansas and Villanova, Pennsylvania. Instead, we’re seeing 10-seed St. Mary’s Gaels fans in Moraga, California and the UNI PantherNation (9 seed) in Northern Iowa searching for NCAA tournament tickets.
While the teams take the NCAA Tournament one game at a time, fans are thinking ahead to the Final Four round and more specifically, Final Four tickets. Fans in Kentucky are conducting searches on FanSnap for “Final Four tickets” more than any other state — Including the host state of Indiana.
April 3 and 5 (Semifinals – Saturday & Championship – Monday)
7,000+ tickets
Lowest price ticket = $318
Average ticket = $675
Knowing the average ticket price can be useful when following trends or to compare one event to another, but fans don’t buy “average tickets” Fans buy those just-right tickets for them. That might mean the first ten rows or it might meant sitting near their friends or it might mean just getting into the event.
Fans searching for NCAA tournament tickets will see FanSnap’s up-to-the-moment summary of the best value tickets at different price points. Of course, fans can still zoom into FanSnap Mapssm, and search for their own best values. We highlight best values with blue stars.
FanSnap shows fans the best value tickets comparing the prices of comperable tickets and then highlighting the tickets with the lowest price
For example, fans searching for “Final Four tickets” will see average prices by section and the best value ticket for that section. This is the direct result of fans telling us that while searching and comparing tickets from across the web is great and comprehensiveness in important, why not just show me the tickets I might want — the ones that are the best value — and save me the searching.
How does Best Value tickets work?
The average price of Section: Terrance Center 614 is $1,300. We highlight the tickets in that section for $446. That’s 65% below the average price for comparable tickets.
Section: Lodge Corner 416 tickets average $1,084. We show fans the tickets in that section for $578, or 46% less than the average.
The East Regionals for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds are the hottest NCAA Tournament tickets. Tickets in Syracuse have been among the higher priced ticket of any region since Selection Sunday when the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed. Average prices on the ticket market had been edging slightly down during the first two rounds last week until Cornell upset both Temple and Wisconsin — winning the first Sweet 16 berth for a Ivy League school in more than a decade.
Washington vs West Virginia & Kentucky vs Cornell
East Region tickets are currently averaging $383. Tickets to both days of East Regionals is Syracuse jumped jumped up $25, on the Cornell win over Wisconsin in Round 2 in Jacksonville.
2-seed West Virginia plays 11-seed Washington on March 25 at 7:27 pm in Syracuse. 12-seed Cornell takes on 1-seed Kentucky at 9:57 pm.
Who is searching for East Regional tickets
1. New York (Ithaca leads Syracuse and NYC in searches)
2. Washington
3. Pennsylvania
4. Kentucky
5. Connecticut
For fans who search and compare tickets, there are outstanding values to be had and FanSnap make finding the values easy. When fans search to tickets to both days in Syracuse, FanSnap will show fans the best value tickets in a variety of sections. For example, there are lower corner tickets listed for $248 (61% lower than comparable tickets).
Our NCAA Tournament Tickets by the Bracket post makes it easy to search for tickets based on the games. We listed them in a bracket like you’re used to seeing.
Fans searching for NCAA Tournament Round 2 tickets — even for those sessions that are already ‘sold out’ — are saving time and money, and benefiting from an amazing choice of tickets. Here are the Round 2 average ticket prices for each venue from lowest to highest average price.
The NCAA tournament is unique in that hoops fans have very little time to make ticket and travel arrangements once the pairings are revealed, and throughout the month they must react quickly if they are fortunate enough to have their team advance through the bracket. Part of what drives fans to madness in March is the exercise of checking ticket site after ticket site to try and find the set of tickets that best meet their budget.
FanSnap highlights the best ticket values at any given moment. Fans can buy on their own schedule rather than waiting to purchase in an attempt to get a better value, and risking missing out on the best, or any, tickets altogether. Fans searching all NCAA tournament events will see FanSnap’s convenient up-to-the-moment summary table of the available best values at different price points. Fans can also use FanSnap’s award-winning dynamic FanSnap Maps, noting both the best value star icons, as well as being able to zoom into an incredibly useful row-level view that highlights ticket offers that often differ by 10% to 25%, even within the same section of the arena.
There were 16 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games today. Any day with 16 college hoops games is a good day and the first day of the college tourney is great simply because the tournament has finally begun! Today, though, seemed even better. Three of today’s games went to overtime. That’s one more than the entire tourney last year.
(8) Texas 80
(9) Wake Forest 81
(2) Villanova 73
(15) Robert Morris 70
(7) BYU 99
(10) Florida 92
There were also incredible nail-biters like UNLV-N. Iowa and Tennessee-SDSU.
(8) UNLV 66
(9) N. Iowa 69
(6) Tennessee 62
(11) San Diego St. 59
The upsets, though are what had us simultaneously pulling our hair out, ripping up our brackets and falling in love with college hoops all over again. Washington and Old Dominion as 11-seeds both knocked off 6-seeds, Marquette and Notre Dame respectively. Washington was down by as much as 15 points in the second half before coming back to win. As exciting as the upsets were, 6-11 upsets aren’t unheard of. In fact, there always seems to be a 12 seed that steals a game from a 5.
(6) Notre Dame 50
(11) Old Dominion 51
(6) Marquette 78
(11) Washington 80
On the first day of the NCAA tournament, we had a 13-seed in Murray State knock off 4-seed Vandy and 14-seed Ohio shocked Georgetown — a 3-seed. Villanova, a 2-seed and a team many have in the Elite 8 survived OT against a clearly talented Robert Morris team.
(4) Vanderbilt 65
(13) Murray St. 66
(3) Georgetown 83
(14) Ohio 9
With that many nail-biters, lead changes, shocking upsets and near-misses, how that this not be the best first day of the NCAA Tournament ever?
Today’s winners will be back on the courts in San Jose, Providence, Oklahoma City and New Orleans on Saturday. Check out the updated times below
Finally the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (tickets) is here! You bet we’ll make it to some games. Going to the tourney in person is even better than a computer with 6 monitors tuned into CBS’s live TV coverage of the tourney streamed online.
Here’s a glimpse inside the FanSnap locker room this morning just as we were about to start our day.
We are finding thousands of great NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament tickets, even for those sessions that are already ‘sold out.’ Fans searching for NCAA tickets on FanSnap are saving time and money, and benefiting from an amazing choice of tickets to the Final Four® in Indianapolis, as well as the Elite 8® in Syracuse, Salt Lake City, Saint Louis and Houston, and the Sweet 16® and opening rounds of the West Region, Midwest Region, South Region and East Region.
The NCAA tournament is unique in that hoops fans have very little time to make ticket and travel arrangements once the pairings are revealed, and throughout the month they must react quickly if they are fortunate enough to have their team advance through the bracket. Part of what drives fans to madness in March is the exercise of checking ticket site after ticket site to try and find the set of tickets that best meet their budget.
“FanSnap ticket search results, gleaned from searching dozens of ticket sites, include hundreds or in some cases thousands of tickets for each game,” said FanSnap CEO Mike Janes. “FanSnap makes it very hard for fans to overpay, as fans using the FanSnap ticket search engine can easily identify at a glance the ‘best value’ tickets – those that are priced substantially below the other available comparable tickets by 10%, 25%, even 50% less.”
For example, FanSnap ticket search results currently show 4,000+ NCAA Championship Game tickets from nine ticket sites, which represent hundreds of sellers. The asking prices for comparable NCAA Championship Game tickets vary by as much as 60%.
The variation in asking prices for the Regionals is similar, where comparable tickets to the Elite 8 games vary by up to 50%. For example, fans using FanSnap can find tickets to the Midwest Regional, for half the price of other tickets being offered in the same area of the arena.
- West Regional (Salt Lake City) – up to 43% variation
- East Regional (Syracuse) – up to 52% variation
- Midwest Regional (St Louis) – up to 51% variation
- South Regional (Houston) – up to 58% variation
FanSnap highlights the best ticket values at any given moment. Fans can buy on their own schedule rather than waiting to purchase in an attempt to get a better value, and risking missing out on the best, or any, tickets altogether. Fans searching all NCAA tournament events will see FanSnap’s convenient up-to-the-moment summary table of the available best values at different price points. Fans can also use FanSnap’s award-winning dynamic FanSnap Maps, noting both the best value star icons, as well as being able to zoom into an incredibly useful row-level view that highlights ticket offers that often differ by 10% to 25%, even within the same section of the arena.
Fans searching all NCAA tournament events will see FanSnap’s convenient up-to-the-moment summary table of the available best values at different price points.
A review of current NCAA ticket prices on FanSnap also shows average asking prices vary greatly from Regional to Regional, e.g. for NCAA Regional Finals tickets:
- In Salt Lake City, West Regional tickets start at $103 and average $191.
- In Syracuse, East Regional tickets start at $109 and average $287.
- In St Louis, Midwest Regional tickets start at $68 and average $200.
- In Houston, South Regional tickets start at $30 and average $207.
The ticket variability is even more pronounced for Round 1 and 2 games. The average price of an “all-sessions strip” (tickets to all the games at a venue) in Buffalo is $140 more than for any other venue.
Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, Ohio State and UC Santa Barbara from the Midwest Region as well as Xavier, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and Oakland from the South Region will play their Round 1 games on Friday March 19. Round 1 winners will return to the Bradley Center on Sunday the 21st to play Round 2 games.
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament tickets for Round 1 & 2 are sold as “sessions” — or as a strip. Session tickets get fan in to two games — one early and one later. Officials then clear the arena and ready it for the second session (of two games) later in the day. An “All Sessions Strip” is a ticket to all the games at a venue.
There are currently hundreds of All Sessions Strips for the NCAA Tournament Rounds 1 & 2 at the Bradley Center available.
Lowest price Bradley Center Strips = $300
Bradley Center Strips average = $437
The winner of this bracket advances to Midwest Regional
Round 1 Session 1:
March 19
1,000+ tickets available
Lowest price tickets = $92
Tickets average = $266
Round 2 Session 3:
March 21
hundreds of tickets available
Lowest price tickets = $129
Tickets average = $207
Providence’s Dunkin Donuts Center will play host to Round 1 & 2 games of the NCAA tournament (tickets).
Villanova, Robert Morris, Richmond, St. Mary’s from the South Region as well as Tennessee, San Diego State, Georgetown and Ohio from the Midwest Region will play their Round 1 games on Thursday March 18. Round 1 winners will be back at the Dunkin Donuts Center on Saturday to play Round 2 games.
The top overall seed in the NCAA tournament, Kansas will be playing at the Ford Center — making the Oklahoma City one of the hotter NCAA tournament tickets.
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament tickets for Round 1 & 2 are sold as “sessions” — or as a strip. Session tickets get fan in to two games — one early and one later. Officials then clear the arena and ready it for the second session (of two games) later in the day. An “All Sessions Strip” is a ticket to all the games at a venue.
There are hundreds of All Session Strips for the NCAA Tournament Rounds 1 & 2 at the Dunkin Donuts Center available.
Michigan State, New Mexico State, Maryland and Houston from the Midwest Region as well as Texas A&M, Utah State, Purdue and Siena from the South Region will play their Round 1 games on Friday March 19. Round 1 winners will be back at the Spokane Arena on Sunday the 21st to play Round 2 games.
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament tickets for Round 1 & 2 are sold as “sessions” — or as a strip. Session tickets get fan in to two games — one early and one later. Officials then clear the arena and ready it for the second session (of two games) later in the day. An “All Sessions Strip” is a ticket to all the games at a venue.
There are currently hundreds of All Sessions Strips for the NCAA Tournament Rounds 1 & 2 at the Spokane Arena available.