With intriguing matchups and serious starpower, the women’s Final Four is probably the hottest ticket in sports right now — and far more expensive than its male counterpart.
Tickets to the women’s semifinal at the American Airlines Center in Dallas — which features the highly anticipated matchup between 1-seed South Carolina and 2-seed Iowa — start at $280 all-in on ticket marketplace TickPick.
The chance to see Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks play Kim Mulkey’s LSU Tigers for the title is another likely draw: The championship game get-in price is $189 — while the all-sessions pass starts at a whopping $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%.
That stands in stark contrast to the men’s Final Four, which saw ticket prices plummet on secondary ticket marketplaces when hometown teams Houston and Texas were eliminated, thus losing the chance to play at NRG Stadium in Houston.
It’s also worth noting that while the demand for the women’s event is higher than the men’s, the supply is lower.
When NRG Stadium last hosted the men’s Final Four in 2016, the announced attendance was 75,505. By contrast, American Airlines Center can only fit about 20,000 spectators.
The place where supply and demand meet is in the ticket stock: As of Tuesday night, 900 tickets were available for the women’s Final Four on TickPick — as opposed to 7,200 available for the men’s.
