tough tickets: a look at ticket prices for lsu-alabama
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In ESPN The Magazine's One Day, One Game Issue (centered around LSU-Alabama), I talked with a scalper outside of the stadium to get a feel for the secondary ticket market.TRANSCRIPT
LSU StUdent SeaSon ticketS are a relative bargain: $144 (or $18 per game) for reserved seats and $96 ($12 each) for general admission. But you have to make the grade to get ‘em. The 14,400 seats are available only to full-time students with an overall GPA of 2.0 or higher.
aLabama’S 7,000 ticketS in the lower bowl and along the rim of the East upper deck were snatched up—at $70 a pop—“immediately,” according to its athletic director.
the moSt expenSive ticket purchased on StubHub for the game cost $2,355. A Louisianan bought two at that price for section West 103, Row 24.
the LeaSt expenSive ticket purchased on StubHub went for $100. One buyer from Louisiana snagged a pair in Row 14 of the South 420 section.
a SeaSon ticket coStS $410, but that doesn’t include the mandatory annual donation—call it Tiger tithing—that can run as high as $950 per seat in prime sections like East 303.
infLationary SpiraL
riSing tide
least expensive ticket average ticket most expensive ticket Data provided by stubHub
a ScaLper’S Lament A scalper stands in the middle of South Stadium Drive, just steps from the gates of Tiger Stadium, and offers an impromptu Business 101 lecture. “Buy low and sell high,” he says. “If I make $20 to $30 off a ticket, that’s a good return.”
Less than an hour before kickoff, the scalper has about $350 in his pocket and a prized ticket—Section 238, Row 18—in his hand. “A good-ass ticket,” he says. He paid $80 for it, just $10 more than face value, and is looking for $100. A customer approaches, but the scalper turns him away. “You’re a Bama fan?” he asks. “You ain’t want this ticket. It’s in the north end zone by the LSU students.”
The scalper smiles, revealing his two gold-plated front teeth. He starts looking for another buyer but soon gets an unwelcome tap on the shoulder. It’s a police officer. He’s arrested and taken into custody. And at least one ticket to college football’s game of the year goes unused. —ScOTT T. MILLER
The average ticket price on StubHub for Alabama-LSU ($487) far outpaced those of the other big games this season.
11/26/2012 ESPN The Magazine 97
Scoring a ticket on the secondary market to see LSU and Alabama square off on their home fields will cost you. Here’s how the prices have trended.
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fanS from 49 StateS boUght ticketS to the game on StubHub. (Alaska was the outlier.) No surprise: Louisianans made up 37% of buyers and paid an average of $573 per ticket. But the next-largest contingent of buyers didn’t come from Alabama; Texans purchased 14% of the tickets and anted up an average of $667 per seat. Buyers from Alabama (12% and $513) were third, followed by those from New York (4%), Georgia (4%) and california (4%).
93,374 peopLe—a record crowd that included LSU alums Lolo Jones and Shaquille O’Neal—attended the game. Not only was it the largest throng ever to watch a football game in Louisiana, surpassing the 93,129 who saw LSU lose to No. 1 Florida in 2009, it also made Tiger Stadium (temporarily) the fifth-largest city in the state.
TOUGH TICKETSThe cosT of Taking a seaT in DeaTh Valley on noV. 3 was jusT as sTeep as college fooTball’s mosT famous sTanDs.
11.03.2012
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
2012
2011
2010
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
crowd SoUrcing
season tickets stUDent tickets visitor allotment vip, players, recrUits anD special groUps
The breakdown of ticket allocation in Tiger Stadium.
74%
16%
8%
2%
aVerage TickeT price
photograph by HILARY SCHEINUK/LSU ATHLETICS
Data through nov. 8