With the game’s unofficial title as the premier American sports championship game, it isn’t entirely surprising. However, NFL Football isn’t the only sport that has exorbitantly high ticket prices. Attending any one of these sporting events is bound to burn a hole through wallets and bank accounts, and in a lot of cases, even more so than attending Super Bowl XLVIII would.
Top 10 Most Expensive Sports Event Tickets of All Time
1. The Masters
Augusta may have only just opened its doors to female members, but The Masters is still pretty discriminatory, specifically against people without $4,500 worth of disposable income.
That’s the amount golf fans need to shell out to watch all four days of the tournament at Augusta, making the most prestigious of the four golf majors also the most expensive ticket in all of sports.
And if you don’t have that kind of cash, a one-day pass would cost $1,200-1,700 – around the price of a ticket to the 2013 Super Bowl.
2. 2013 World Series Game 6
What does a chance to see the Boston Red Sox clinch their first World Series title in Fenway Park for over a century cost? About ten times a century, $1,000, making it the most expensive baseball ticket in history.
But that’s only to get in to the stadium. The best seats cost plenty more; dugout seats reportedly went for $10,000-12,000.
3. A Yankees Game in the Legends Suite
If you ever wondered how the Yankees could afford their $200 million payroll every single year, then look no further than the Legends Suite.
As one of the 122 people the suite can accommodate, your access to dugout lounges and in-seat wait services will set you back $2,500 per game. But you better get acquainted with your suitemates, because the Yankees only accept three-, five-, seven- or ten-year leases. This means that a five-year deal would cost upwards of $1 million.
4. 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony
It’s rather ironic how the costliest ticket in the biggest sporting event in the world doesn’t even involve actual athletic performance. But we digress.
The Singapore Grand Prix is the most unique race experience if Formula 1. It combines the excitement of a street race with the ambience of the Singaporean night. And it comes at a cost.
The three-day experience (from practice to qualifying to the race) in Singapore will set race fans back a cool $1,800, the most expensive package in the most expensive sport in the world.
This year’s game surpassed the LSU-Alabama Game for the Century’s top average resale with $763. The most expensive tickets reported by an online reselling site went for $20,000 to a group of four – an average of $5,000 per ticket. Yes, Johnny, that is a lot of money.
7. 2012 BCS National Championship Game
Much like its professional counterpart, the ticket prices for college football’s National Championship Game have been trending onwards and upwards for the past few years.
In 2012, the LSU-Alabama title game average resale ticket price was a record-breaking $1,565 – a record which lasted all of 12 months. That’s because some tickers for last year’s title game, Notre Dame-Alabama, fetched over $2,500. How much are the guys on the field getting paid again?
8. 2013 NBA Finals Game 7
Last season’s NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs were an instant classic. It came down to Game 7, and the two teams gave the fans their money’s worth – around $1,800, actually.
That was the average secondary market price for last year’s Game 7, eclipsing the previous game 7 between the Lakers and Celtics, which came in at $890.
9. 2010 Olympic Hockey Gold Medal Game
For die-hard Canadian hockey fanatics, winning the Olympic gold in their home country would be the absolute apex of sporting fandom, not to be valued in mere dollars. That didn’t stop others from trying, and the figure they came up with: $3,250.
That price topped even the Super Bowl and was twice the value of a Stanley Cup ticket. But as far as Canada is concerned, that game was probably the Super Bowl and Stanley Cup rolled into one.
10. Floyd Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez
This year’s title bout between Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez broke all sorts of financial records – Mayweather’s guaranteed fee, gross revenue both from pay-per-view and at the live gate, where it earned $20 million.
It certainly helped that this fight between two undefeated fighters was the most expensive boxing ticket ever. The average resale price of the tickets broke $2,000 per ticket – more than twice the previous record – and some floor seats reached as high as $23,500.
