It's conference tournament season and the SEC tournament is set to tip off on Wednesday, March 12. This season was competitive for the conference and the anticipation for this year's battle for the crown is high—so high, in fact, that ESPN moved its No. 1 broadcasting team off the ACC tournament and onto the SEC tournament.
It should be fun. Auburn and Alabama's fierce rivalry took place atop the standings this year and may continue this week in the tournament if stars align. Florida and Tennessee lurk as candidates for the conference crown as well.
The tournament is slated to tip off at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 12 and will be held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Here's what the ticket prices look like (per Ticketmaster) as we head into the week of conference play.
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 1 of the SEC tournament, for example, are allowed to enter Bridgestone Arena at 12 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Fans who purchase tickets to Session 2 are permitted to enter at 6 p.m. ET later that same day.
For the SEC tournament on Wednesday, there are no assigned seats for any section of the arena except courtside. Fans are purchasing general admission tickets. Those GA tickets are not very pricey, either. For any session a ticket can be had for as low as $17.
On Thursday, fans purchase normal tickets—but it doesn't change the pricing all too much. The cheapest tickets available for the first session that day, which will feature Ole Miss and Texas A&M facing off against whichever teams make it through the first round, are $24 a pop. The second session gets expensive quickly; tickets for the evening slate of games, which will feature Missouri and Kentucky, start at $127 apiece.
It's pricey across the board for Friday. Tickets for the first session (Auburn and Tennessee) are going for $201 as the lowest listed price. The evening session (Florida and Alabama) is sold out completely, unless you are looking to pay a premium for courtside seats.
Saturday's semifinals, when the teams are still to be determined, drops a bit with tickets going for $175 in the 300-level. It's the same for Sunday's final; fans can get a seat for a shade over $150 per.
Most Expensive Tickets
There are some pricey seats available for the SEC tournament this year. Courtside tickets are being sold through Ticketmaster and they cost a pretty penny, predictably.
Floor seats for Wednesday's session during the day are going for as high as $218 per ticket. That evening, there's a pair of seats available courtside for $738 each. Thursday brings a price increase and fewer options. The first session of the day has only two tickets left, listed for $468 apiece; prices skyrocket for the night session, with courtside seats available for $1,785.
Following the trend of the lower-end tickets, prices only get higher for Friday. The most expensive tickets fans can find for the first session of the day check in at $1,249.50. Friday night there are two tickets left in that area and are listed for $1,785, just like Thursday.
It's more of the same on Saturday. The priciest ticket for the semifinals is $1,725. On Sunday, ahead of learning the matchup for the final, it can cost fans up to $4,446 to sit courtside.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as SEC Basketball Tournament Ticket Prices: Cheapest & Most Expensive Seats.
