I was gonna do one of these, then I wasn’t, then I was, then I…whatever it’ll be a short one though. The main impetus for doing it is:
The speculators have skedaddled and these have come down to a reasonable $61, with $50 tickets popping up here and there in the upper bowl. What I think happened here is when the field was announced this was obviously the hottest ticket, given all the big schools in driving range, and speculators jumped into the market. Now it’s time for them to get out and prices have deflated between 40-50 percent because of it.
That’s the good news. The bad news is Kentucky and Louisville are still both in town, while tomorrow’s St. Patrick’s Day, which means anywhere but the arena is going to be packed to the gills with hillbillies in their cups.
Round 2 (if necessary)
If Michigan makes it to the next round, tickets will go in a flash, but you’ll be able to pick one up for about that outside if history is any judge. Plans will have to come together in a hurry once they announce the time, but if Michigan gets an early Sunday afternoon timeslot it’s likely to draw more fans who can justify a last-minute day trip out of it. Night draws: notsomuch, since a 5-hour drive that starts after dark when Monday’s a work day is unlikely to get past the committee.
Strategy-wise if we draw the noon or 2:30 slot jump on those at $80. If it’s a night game and you’re already committed, I bet they’ll drop to something more like $60 online the night before, with lots of last-minute seats around for cheap. Right now it’s $111 but that is speculator pricing.
And Beyond?
Kansas City is too far for a majority of Michigan fans to drive—even for the large Chicago contingent it’s ~9 hours. Oregon (the #3 seed) fans won’t get there en masse either. However if Creighton comes out of that part of the bracket, Omaha is very nearby, and could drive up the price considerably. Otherwise expect that to act a lot like a low bowl game, with tickets overpriced online and cheap on the ground.
Kansas would be the likely Elite 8 draw if that happens, and at that point it’s a virtual Jayhawks home game. It’s too hard to predict prices for that but even in that case tickets the day of the game tend to come down sharply from where they were earlier.