Women’s Final Four secondary ticket market outpaces men’s

Ticketprices on the secondary market are substantially higher for thewomen’s Final Four than for the men.

The womenplay in a much smaller venue, but they also have more recognizablenames in the their Final Four. Only UConn on the men’s side isanything close to a traditional power.

One of thewomen’s stars is Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who was honored astheAP Player of the YearonThursday.

“I thinkit’s pretty incredible,” Clark said of the difference in ticketprices. “I think it’s starting to get the viewership, theattention, things like that that it deserves. When people reallyturn on the TV or sit in the seat, they understand how good theproduct is and how much fun it is to watch.”

Anall-session ticket for the women’s Final Four was at least $475 onStubHub and $335 on Vivid Seats, before fees, as of 3 p.m. EDTThursday. Men’s all-sessions tickets were going for at least $65and $66, respectively.

The women’ssemifinals on Friday, which is headlined by the matchup of Clark’sHawkeyes against undefeated, top-ranked and defending championSouth Carolina, start at $222 on StubHub and $184 on Vivid Seats.That compares to $45 and $44 for Saturday’s semifinals on the men’sside.

“It’s beenbuilding towards this for a long time,” South Carolina coach DawnStaley said. “Fortunately for us — not just South Carolina, but usas women’s basketball — we’ve got a lot of star power behind oursport.”

Tickets forSunday’s women’s championship game begin at $167 on StubHub and$131 on Vivid Seats, and Monday’s men’s title game is at $45 and$37.

The men areplaying in Houston’s NRG Stadium, home of the NFL’s Texans, whichseats close to 75,000. The women are at Dallas’ American AirlinesCenter, home of the NBA’s Mavericks and NHL’s Stars, which hasnearly 20,000 seats.

“It’spretty neat that it’s sold out,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “Thecheapest ticket is more expensive than the cheapest ticket inHouston for the men’s Final Four. I thought that waseye-catching.”