With the men’s Final Four being filled with underdogs instead of big time NCAA brands, it has led college basketball fans to switch their interest to the buzz surrounding the women’s version of the event instead.
While the 2023 men’s NCAA Tournament has been highly entertaining and inundated with surprise upsets, it has had a notable effect on interest for the event later this week at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
Related: College basketball games today – Get watch times for the Final Four matchups
On Monday, it was reported that after the Miami Hurricanes bounced both the Houston Cougars and Texas Longhorns from the tournament last week, prices for the men’s Final Four games plummeted. Surely, the local ranked teams being on the wrong end of Miami’s shocking run destroyed interest for fans in the region to see them and the other teams trying to win a title this week.
However, that has not been the case for the women’s Final Four, which is taking place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. On Wednesday, Front Office Sports revealed some interesting information they obtained from the secondary ticket marketplace TickPick.
Tickets for the highly anticipated matchup between South Carolina and Iowa are going for an all-in price of $280. Well over what men’s tickets ($158) were going for earlier this week. While the other matchup between Virginia and LSU has an all-in price of $189. A number still much higher than their male counterparts.
The cost for an all-session pass to the women’s Final Four starts at an astounding $637.
“Data provided to Front Office Sports from TickPick found that the get-in price to the women’s Final Four increased 168% once the matchups were set, while the average purchase price increased 185%.”
– Front Office Sports
The women’s NCAA Tournament in 2023 has seen a major boost in ratings and the Final Four matchup between Iowa and South Carolina has drawn a great deal of interest due to the fact that they are two of the best teams in the nation. As the Hawkeyes player Caitlin Clark has furthered her star status during this year’s tourney.
It is also important to note the men’s event will be held at a 75,000-seat arena, while the women’s will be inside a venue with a capacity of just over 20,000.