SEC Tournament tickets the most expensive in college basketball

The SEC Tournament starts Wednesday in Nashville, and if you’re an SEC fan and you’re not there, I won’t blame you.

You might not have guessed it, but the most expensive conference tournament ticket in college basketball is none other than the SEC Tournament.

Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators, will be the host site for the fourth time in the last five years.

And clearly they like how it’s going, because the conference has already agreed to host it there six more times through 2025. And SEC fans are willing to pay top dollar for these tickets.

Conference Tournament Average Ticket Prices

Mar 13, 2016; Nashville, TN, USA; General view of FanFare prior to the SEC Tournament Championship game between the Texas A&M Aggies and the Kentucky Wildcats at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

SEC – $399.28
Big East – $285.13
ACC – $208.17
Big 12 – $167.51
Big Ten – $162.70
Pac 12 – $127.48

(Information courtesy of TickPick)

Before your eyes pop out of your head, those prices are not for a single game. That’s the average price for the full session, which includes a ticket to every game of the tournament. But still, the SEC is by far the most expensive ticket.

The Big East Tournament, which has been held in Madison Square Garden every year since 1983, doesn’t even come close.

While the tournament has lost some of its’ luster since traditional powers like Syracuse, UConn, Pittsburgh, and Louisville left the conference, $115 more for the SEC Tournament is still hard to believe.

The ACC Tournament has been held in North Carolina 51 times in its’ 63-year existence, with Greensboro (26) being the most frequent host site.

Brooklyn is the site of the 2017 ACC Tournament, and we’ll see if that idea pans out. The SEC’s tickets are nearly twice the price of the premiere conference in college basketball.

The likely cause for that steep ticket price is Big Blue Nation. They are one of the best traveling fanbases in college basketball, and that goes double for the SEC Tournament.

While the conference as a whole might not have the best basketball tradition, the same cannot be said for the Kentucky Wildcats. Each year Wildcat fans turn whatever city is hosting the SEC basketball tournament blue.

And for the foreseeable future that city will be Nashville.