Sporting events have gotten more and more expensive through the years, no news flash here, but college football games have gotten downright out of hand.
A recent story by Adam Spencer from Saturday Down South, lists the top 20 most expensive college football tickets of the 2017 season, and seven of those games involve SEC football teams. You can see the complete top 20 list at coachingsearch.com.
Here are the seven SEC football games that are among the top 20 most expensive tickets for the college football season. And it should be noted, these prices are for the cheapest ticket in the stadium.
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1. Georgia @ Notre Dame: $499
2. Alabama vs. Florida State (Atlanta): $422
7. Alabama @ Auburn: $222
9. LSU @ Alabama: $210
12. Auburn @ Clemson: $200
15. Clemson @ South Carolina: $171
17. Tennessee @ Alabama: $155
I understand that this is the first time the Bulldogs have traveled to South Bend in school history, but to pay $500 for the worst seat in the house is outrageous.
It already costs SEC football fans an arm and a leg just to have the ability to purchase season tickets, and in college football you’re basically paying the price for season tickets and only getting a handful of interesting games.
And since season-ticket holders are only paying for home games, each SEC team has at least two cupcakes on their home slate. And if another one of those home games is against one of the weaker teams in the conference, you may only get two or three worthwhile games.
Georgia
Let’s take the University of Georgia for example, whose 2017 schedule has been the target of a lot criticism. The Bulldogs will play six home games this season, and not one of them is a date worth circling from a fan perspective.
Georgia will play Appalachian State, Samford, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, and Kentucky at home this season, while playing Notre Dame, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Georgia Tech on the road, and Florida in Jacksonville.
But despite a pitiful home schedule, Bulldog fans will not be paying discount prices in Athens, in fact, the University of Georgia raised ticket prices in 2017 for the first time since 2005.
According to a story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the minimum donation for the right to purchase season tickets increased by an average of 17.3 percent. The Sky Club at Sanford Stadium went from $1,000 donation per ticket to 1,200, while the Champions Club seats went from $2,000 to $2,250. And donations for general stadium seating increased from $250 per seat to $300.
And all of those prices for donations are what you have to spend before calculating the cost for travel, food, parking, hotels, and oh yeah, the actual tickets themselves.
Must Read: Toughest non-conference game for each SEC team
With these increasing ticket prices, it’s no wonder that many fans are opting not to buy season tickets and instead just picking and choosing the games they want to go to, while others are simply choosing not to go at all.