The Big Ten conference tournament will take place this week as the March Madness season gets fully underway. The first game will take place on Wednesday, March 12 and this year's conference champ will be determined on Sunday, March 16.
It promises to be a fun tournament with how competitive the conference has been this season. Michigan State is the clear frontrunner, entering tournament play riding a five-game winning streak after earning the No. 1 seed. But Michigan, Maryland, and UCLA could make things interesting. More broadly, there are a few bubble teams like Ohio State that need to put forth a strong showing if they want to have any hope of earning an NCAA Tournament bid.
This year's tournament will be held at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse yet again and B1G supporters will be flying in from all over the country to support their favorite teams. Here's how much tickets cost on Ticketmaster as the games get underway.
Cheapest Tickets
As is often the case with college basketball tournaments, fans do not buy tickets to singular games until the later rounds. Instead, tickets to "sessions" are sold. Fans who purchase tickets to Session 2 of the Big Ten tournament, for example, are allowed to enter Gainbridge Fieldhouse at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday. Fans who purchase tickets to Session 3 are permitted to enter at 6:30 p.m. ET later that same day.
With all that out of the way, the cheapest tickets are, indeed, quite cheap. Tickets to Wednesday afternoon's opening slate of games can be found for as low as $40. There are dozens of seats available in the 200-level for that price.
Tickets get slightly more expensive in the back half of the week. The cheapest seats for the first session on Thursday are clocking in at $55 in the 200-level, and $60 for Thursday night's session. Friday tickets are $85 across the board.
The matchups, obviously, have yet to be determined but before the tournament tip-off, Saturday's semifinal tickets are going for as low as $95, and Sunday's final can be acquired for $105.
Most Expensive Tickets
Surprisingly there isn't a huge variation in price when it comes to the most expensive tickets available. Fans can sit in the lower bowl of Wednesday's session for $60. Entry into Thursday night's session can be had for as much as $100.
The price starts to climb during the weekend and especially for the final two rounds, which lines up. Tickets to Saturday's semis are going for as much as $150, and tickets to the final are listed for up to $175. You get what you're paying for, though; the seats available are as low as 10 rows from the court.
The resale market may get crazy once the matchups for the weekend are determined but heading into the tournament it is not entirely unreasonable to get into the building, and springing for the good seats won't cost an arm and a leg.
More College Basketball on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Big Ten Basketball Tournament Ticket Prices: Cheapest & Most Expensive Seats.
