The Impact of Ranking on Ticket Sales
By Kristi DoshLast Updated on June 5, 2014
What role does a Division I football team’s AP ranking play in the amount of tickets sold for its games and the price of those tickets?
The following depicts the least expensive tickets found for this week’s and next week’s games for teams on the AP Top 25 as of October 2, 2011.
The prices were found using StubHub as of 12 p.m. PST on October 8, 2011. For this data the number in parenthesis indicates the number of tickets remaining for sale on StubHub. Prices with a “*” indicate that StubHub data was unavailable and thus, Craigslist was used to obtain data. The + symbol indicates that the game was played at a neutral location.
TEAM | 10/8 TICKET PRICE (# OF TICKETS REMAINING) | 10/15 TICKET PRICE (# OF TICKETS REMAINING) |
| 1. LSU | versus Florida- $150.00 (30) | at Tennessee- $74.00 (1,799) |
| 2. Alabama | versus Vanderbilt – $48.00 (52) | at Ole Miss – $50.00 (1,687) |
| 3. Oklahoma | versus Texas- $150.00*+ | at Kansas- $50.00 (314) |
| 4. Wisconsin | No game | versus Indiana- $60.00 (681) |
| 5. Boise State | Played Fresno on 10/7 | at Colorado State- $102 (154) |
| 6. Oklahoma State | versus Kansas- $20.00* | at Texas- $80.00 (1,369) |
| 7. Stanford | versus Colorado- $13.00 (296) | at Washington State- $40.00 (67) |
| 8. Clemson | versus Boston College- $75.00* | at Maryland- $18.00 (470) |
| 9. Oregon | Played Cal on 10/6 | versus Arizona State- $52.00 (640) |
| 10. Arkansas | versus Auburn- $50.00* | No game |
| 11. Texas | versus Oklahoma- $150.00*+ | versus Oklahoma State- $80.00 (1.369) |
| 12. Michigan | at Northwestern – $95.00 (142) | at Michigan State- $168.00 (792) |
| 13. Georgia Tech | No game | at Virginia- $39.00 (291) |
| 14. Nebraska | versus Ohio State- $50.00 (130) | No game |
| 15. Auburn | at Arkansas- $50.00* | versus Florida- $94.00 (1,146) |
| 16. West Virginia | versus Connecticut- $17.00* | No game |
| 17. Florida | at LSU – $150.00 (30) | at Auburn- $94.00 (1,146) |
| 18. South Carolina | versus Kentucky- $45.00* | at Mississippi State- $32.00 (363) |
| 19. Illinois | at Indiana- $25.00* | versus Ohio State- $31.00 (556) |
| 20. Kansas State | versus Missouri- $20.00 (15) | at Texas Tech – $16.00 (811) |
| 21. Virginia Tech | versus Miami- $15.00 (256) | at Wake Forest- $25.00 (621) |
| 22. Arizona State | at Utah- $15.00* | at Oregon- $52.00 (640) |
| 23. Florida State | at Wake Forest- $15* | at Duke – $20.00 (155) |
| 24. Texas A&M | at Texas Tech – $20.00 (376) | versus Baylor – $98.00 (908) |
| 25. Baylor | versus Iowa State- $10.00* | at Texas A&M – $98.00 (908) |
The 25th-ranked Baylor had the least expensive ticket price on the list for this week’s games, at $10.00. The top-ranked LSU had the most expensive ticket price at $150.00 for its game against Florida, which tied pricing for the always popular Red River Rivalry game between Texas and Oklahoma.
As for next week, the highest-priced game as of October 8, 2011 was the match-up between in-state rivals Michigan and Michigan State, for which the least expensive tickets were being sold on StubHub for $168.00.
Washington State fans hoping to catch a glimpse of Stanford quarterback phenom Andrew Luck better act fast and buy tickets, as only 67 remained on StubHub as of yesterday afternoon.
The following tidbit should be of interest to Boise State fans: Tickets for the Broncos’ away game versus Colorado State were next week’s highest priced game for any Top 25 team, priced at $102.00. It appears that many of the Broncos’ game tickets sell for over $100.00, which is interesting when compared to the ticket prices for teams in larger conferences (say, Texas Tech, Stanford and South Carolina).
Throughout the rest of the football season, visit BusinessofCollegeSports.com every Sunday to track how ticket prices fluctuate as teams’ rankings rise and fall and to find out which conference boasts the highest ticket prices.
(Today’s post was written by BusinessofCollegeSports.com’s new main contributing writer. To learn the identity of the site’s new writer, be sure to visit BusinessofCollegeSports.com tomorrow!)
