Fans can certainly find some cheap seats at Williams Arena for Gophers men’s basketball games, but the average ticket holder will likely have spent a solid chunk of money to attend a game.
The median price for a re-sold ticket to attend a Gophers game at “The Barn” is $84. That’s the 11th most expensive median price for a ticket to a Division I college basketball game in the country, according to Vivid Seats, via the Star Tribune.
Re-sold, or secondary market tickets are tickets sold online and through brokers, not official season tickets from the University of Minnesota.
Amelia Rayno of the Star Tribune offers up her reasoning as to why the Gophers are able to charge so much.
Obviously, the Gophers have a monopoly in this state for college basketball, with no other Division I schools around – that should help Minnesota do very well, attendance-wise. But what’s interesting about the Gophers’ placement on this list is that Williams Arena doesn’t consistently sell out.
Since the market is set by sellers, prices for the tickets can be driven up by demand. What that means is that while the venue doesn’t always have a rear in every seat, Gophers fans are very willing to pay for better seats. There aren’t as many who are eager to sit in the nosebleeds though — Williams’ cache of obstructed view seats might have something to do with that as well.
Tickets for the Gophers non-conference game against Nebraska-Omaha range from $32 to $133.
In contrast, tickets to the border battle rivalry game between Minnesota and Wisconsin on Jan. 22 range in price from $87 to $240.
The most expensive tickets are sold at the Kansas University, where the median price of a ticket is a whopping $265.
