{"id":20329,"date":"2024-05-10T12:54:57","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=20329"},"modified":"2024-05-10T12:54:57","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:54:57","slug":"alabama-clemson-low-ticket-prices-ticketclub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/alabama-clemson-low-ticket-prices-ticketclub\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama-Clemson Championship a Perfect Storm for Low Ticket Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a blizzard of headlines going throughout the sports world this week about the upcoming College Football Playoff National Championship game between Alabama and Clemson<\/a>, and how poorly it is selling. But if you look at the data regarding two key facts on the recent history of games that had college football\u2019s crown on the line, the ticket prices should really come as no surprise.<\/p>\n

Currently, the get-in price for the game, which kicks off on Monday evening at Levi\u2019s Stadium south of San Francisco, is down all the way to $137 per ticket, which will score you a spot in Section 406, Row 27. There are tickets in the 300-level for under $200 as well, facts which led to Ticketmaster dropping its price floor on the event to compete with the secondary ticket market.<\/p>\n

Alabama-Clemson tickets<\/a> have been trending sharply downward since last week, starting at over $1,000 per seat prior to the semifinal bowls on December 29 all the way down to around $300 in the past two days. Average prices for 400-level seats (AKA \u2018nosebleeds\u2019) were below $200 on Thursday and are just over that line Friday, three days before kickoff.<\/p>\n

\"CFP<\/p>\n

What\u2019s to blame?<\/h2>\n

The media speculation has centered on two core themes hypothesizing why sales are so sluggish and the market is so low. First, the game is being played in northern California, far from the sport\u2019s traditional base in the Southeast. Levi\u2019s Stadium is new, state-of-the-art, and regularly hosts major competitions including the San Francisco 49ers home games and the Pac-12 Championship (as well as Super Bowl 50 in 2016). But it has well-known traffic issues, and travel to and from is expensive and not terribly convenient. Second, the semifinals saw Alabama and Clemson advance \u2013 A matchup that has occurred three times in the five years since the playoff system was established to replace the BCS final. The Crimson Tide have played in an astonishing six of the previous eight games that decided the champion of DI college football.<\/p>\n

To better assess what\u2019s really going on, we took a look at the data over championship games in college football dating back to the 2011 LSU-Alabama tilt, and found that there seem to be two key factors \u2013 travel distance for fans, and time between the game\u2019s participants being decided and the game itself.<\/p>\n

DISTANCE<\/h2>\n

Measuring the distance in miles for the fan bases hoping to catch their team winning it all in person, we find that there\u2019s a strong correlation with ticket price. The record-shattering prices seen for last year\u2019s Georgia vs. Alabama title game came with the finale being played at Mercedez-Bend Stadium in Atlanta \u2013 the capitol of one of the states that had its flagship university participating, and just over 200 miles from the home stadium of the other. The No. 2 highest price in recent history was 2011\u2019s tilt between Alabama and LSU in New Orleans \u2013 another time where a state\u2019s flagship university was playing in a title game within its borders.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s final sees the furthest average distance on record, with Alabama and Clemson\u2019s home stadiums are just shy of 2,500 miles away from Santa Clara.<\/p>\n

This chart lists championship games sorted by average distance between the game location and the home field of each team:<\/p>\n

\"cfp<\/p>\n

TIME<\/h2>\n

Prior to the College Football Playoff, the BCS would announce its title game participants in early December, following the outcome of the various conference championship games. That left the better part of a month (or more) between when fan bases knew where their teams would be playing, and the games themselves. In the five years of CFP action, that championship game has followed semifinals played in a span as short as a week.<\/p>\n

That 2011 LSU-Alabama game and the 2012 Notre Dame-Alabama game both saw over 30 days for fans to plan on their travel expense (or for LSU fans, to save up for snacks at the game, presumably). Both saw prices well over $1000 on average. The obvious outlier here is the 2017 title game, where just seven days elapsed between Georgia and Alabama\u2019s semifinal victory and the championship \u2013 yet prices set the record on the secondary market. But given that neither fan group (at least those living local to their chosen school) necessarily needed to factor airfare or even hotels into their cost, it makes sense why that one might have been fine for the quick turnaround.<\/p>\n

This chart is sorted by the time fans had between the game\u2019s participants being decided, and kickoff:<\/p>\n

\"cfp<\/p>\n

Predicted Prices vs. Reality<\/h2>\n

If we use these two data points, how well could we assume an average ticket price based on those factors alone? As it happens, pretty well, save for the Georgia-Alabama outlier from one year ago. Weighing distance as the more important factor, only two games are more than one spot off of an \u2018expected\u2019 average price rank compared to their actual one.<\/p>\n

As the data shows, the 2018 final between Clemson and Alabama is a bit of a perfect storm \u2013 it is the furthest distance for fans to travel, and there was limited time between contests to arrange for travel, should those interested in attending the game actually have the means to do so in the first place. Couple those facts with fan bases who have had repeated chances to see their teams play for a title, including against each other in three of the past four seasons, and here we are.<\/p>\n

\"cfp<\/p>\n

What Does This Mean for the Future?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Currently, CFP championship games are scheduled through 2023. Next year, the game will return to New Orleans. In 2020, Miami will host, followed in subsequent seasons by Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Houston. Given that the time between semifinals and finals isn\u2019t going to change much over the next five years, it\u2019s likely that officials related to any of those contests will have a strong rooting interest for whichever team has its fan base closest as the semifinal pairings are being figured out.<\/p>\n

Current CFP Championship Ticket Prices<\/a><\/h2>\n

\"cfp<\/a><\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> Maximum numbers are skewed by some ticket groups listed far above what anyone might actually pay, presumably priced by brokers waiting to see if prices rebound closer to game time.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a blizzard of headlines going throughout the sports world this week about the upcoming College Football Playoff National Championship game between Alabama and Clemson, and how poorly it is selling. But if you look at the data regarding two key facts on the recent history of games that had college football\u2019s crown on the … Continue reading Alabama-Clemson Championship a Perfect Storm for Low Ticket Prices<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1277,40],"tags":[1190,1322,1287,1167,1323],"class_list":["post-20329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data","category-sports","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-cfp-championship","tag-clemson-tigers","tag-levis-stadium","tag-santa-clara"],"yoast_head":"\nAlabama-Clemson Championship a Perfect Storm for Low Ticket Prices<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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