Third-seeded Illinois faces nine-seed Iowa at 5:09 p.m. Saturday with a trip to the Final Four on the line. More Illini and Hawkeyes fans are likely headed down to Houston, but anyone who just wants to watch a high-level college basketball game, can suddenly afford tickets.
On Friday morning, there were upper deck seats available for resell on Ticketmaster for as cheap as $49, including fees. Perhaps as Illinois and Iowa fans decided to make the trip south, those prices rose throughout the day and were up to $76 by late Friday night.
Prices are a little higher on other sites with SeatGeek listing several tickets for as cheap as $94. Even seats in the lower level aren’t outrageous with some listed as low as $157.
For comparison, the cheapest tickets for the West Regional final in San Jose, Calif., between Arizona and Purdue are going for $130. The most expensive Elite Eight tickets are in Washington, D.C., where cheapest tickets for Duke-UConn are listed at $276. Elite Eight tickets in Chicago for Michigan-Tennessee are as cheap as $200.