We are back with our weekly look into the ebb and flow of the MLB secondary ticket market – rankings and highlights below:

Top 10 Most Expensive MLB Ticket Prices Last Week (on the secondary ticket market)

• Earlier this week, we tweeted about a noticeable increase in White Sox ticket prices and now they have actually topped our leaderboard of average ticket prices in the resale market at $70.32
• Meanwhile, the Cardinals entered the top 5 for the first time with prices at an avg. of $67.85
• New York Mets ticket prices continue to fall, and they are now outside the top 5 (we have a detailed post about the Mets price decline here)

• The Cardinals had the most significant upward jump this week – moving four places into 2nd
• The Twins dropped the most this week among the top 10 teams – after weeks of rising ticket prices, the prices have returned back to around the season average of $62
• Nationals prices are also on a significant decline – surely not benefiting from Strasburg’s injury
• The Orioles and Padres entered the top 10, replacing the Nationals and the Rangers

The 10 Least Expensive MLB Ticket Prices Last Week (on the secondary ticket market)

• Los Angeles Angels ticket prices are still the lowest – we documented the low Angels prices in detail last week
• The Royals, Brewers, Marlins and Pirates round out the 5 lowest average ticket prices in baseball last week

Questions/comments/data requests? Get in touch with me at chad@seatgeek.com or @ us on Twitter – @SeatGeek.

Earlier this week I ranked MLB teams by ticket price and briefly called out how low Angels prices have become this summer. I wanted to present more of the data and show just how great of a time is to be an Angels fan – if they still exist…

Los Angeles Angels Ticket Prices (6/1/2010 – 8/25/2010)

• There is a 44% decrease from June 1st (essentially the peak) until 8/25 (essentially the trough)
• 8/25 prices bottomed out at $23.47
• The average price over this time period is $32.69

What this all means, is that there are some amazing deals right now on Angels tickets. Let’s take a deeper look at the game on Saturday vs the Orioles to get a better feel for what is available in the market.

• Average ticket prices are $25 dollars for a Saturday game, which is typically the most expensive day for baseball tickets
• Tickets area averaging at a price that is 70% of face value (the box office ticket price as printed on the ticket)
• Using our sorting features, you can see that tickets start for as low as $5 which is 25% of face value!

Update: lowest prices are still $5, but the best deals start at 30% and 35% of face value.

The NCAA football season is only a week away, and here at SeatGeek we want to help you get back in a football state of mind. So get the sand out of your flip-flops, put on your trusty jersey, (paint your face perhaps?) and root your alma-mater on to victory, just like you did back in ‘72. College football tickets have gotten a bit more expensive since your days in school however, and if you’re getting a little old to be sneaking into the student section of the stadium, your best place to find the cheapest, sold-out NCAA football tickets is SeatGeek.

With that in mind, we crunched the numbers to give you the latest in college football ticketing trends for the upcoming season.

As always there are plenty of games between bitter rivals that never cease to get their fans’ spines’ tingling. These games combine stellar play on the field, with a unique history of past battles won and last. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the top two most expensive games of the season are Ohio State vs. Michigan on Nov. 27th, and Oklahoma hosting the Texas Longhorns on October 2nd.

Interestingly enough the Texas Longhorns, despite being the visiting team in two of the top four most expensive games this season, do not have a single home game in the top 25, with their most expensive home games failing to match those of lower profile teams like the Colorado Buffaloes, and their in-state rivals, the Texas A&M Aggies.

Both the defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide, and the Ohio State Buckeyes have three games each in the top 10, together comprising 60% of the top ten list. However, surprisingly, the team with the most home games in the top 25, is the Iowa Hawkeyes with four. That means that more than half of their home games, are among the top twenty-five most expensive games, across all teams, all season long.

Additionally, we also broke down the average price for all home games by conference.

The highest conference, as ranked by average secondary market ticket price, is….no conference at all! Rather, it is the average of all Division I teams that are not a member of any conference, namely the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, as well as Army and Navy. Behind those three however, come the SEC with an average price of $157.85, the Big 10 – average price $145.13, and the Big 12, with an average price of $139.86.

Amongst the AP preseason top 25, the cheapest tickets can be found for the #15 Pittsburgh Panthers, with an average price of  only $65.43. Tickets for #3 Boise State can be had for the reasonable price of $110.38.

So if you want to see high-quality football at affordable prices, be sure to check back at SeatGeek’s NCAA football page throughout the season, and as always you can email me at jonathan@seatgeek.com with any questions or comments, and remember to like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter @SeatGeek

It’s the end of summer here in New York City, and  SeatGeek.com has access to the hottest tickets in, and around the city, including this year’s 2010 US Open Tennis Championship, taking place at the National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens, New York from August 30, 2010 – September 12, 2010. The draw for the first round of the tournament for both men and women is this afternoon, however we wanted to take a look at the pricing for tickets in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main stadium at the National Tennis Center. The games biggest stars usually grace Arthur Ashe Stadium, and we want to give you the information you need to make intelligent buying decisions before you ride the 7 train out to Flushing.

Below is a graph showing the  average ticket price per each session at the 2010 US Open for Arthur Ashe Stadium.

• Ticket prices for the earlier sessions in Arthur Ashe Stadium are significantly lower than those for sessions later in the tournament, as to be expected.
• The lowest average price is for session 3 with an avg price per ticket of $47, which takes place on August 31, 2010, at 11:00 AM. Tickets to that session can be found here.
• The highest average price of the tournament  is for session 26, the men’s final , with an average ticket price of $331.
• Tickets went on sale earlier this summer, however the men’s and women’s draw won’t be unveiled until this afternoon.

Below are a list of the US Open rankings for both men and women.

2010 US Open Men’s Singles Seeds

1. Rafael Nadal, Spain

2. Roger Federer, Switzerland

3. Novak Djokovic, Serbia

4. Andy Murray, Great Britain

5. Robin Soderling, Sweden

6. Nikolay Davydenko, Russia

7. Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic

8. Fernando Verdasco, Spain

9. Andy Roddick, United States

10. David Ferrer, Spain

2010 US Open Women’s Singles Seeds

1. Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark

2. Kim Clijsters, Belgium

3. Venus Williams, United States

4. Jelena Jankovic, Serbia

5. Samantha Stosur, Australia

6. Francesca Schiavone, Italy

7. Vera Zvonareva, Russia

8. Li Na, China

9. Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland

10. Victoria Azarenka, Belarus

Event Details

What:  2010 US Open of Tennis

Where:  US Tennis Association Billy Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York

When:  Monday, August 30, 2010 – Sunday, September 12, 2010

Where to get tickets:  Find tickets on SeatGeek.com

If you have any questions or comments about the post, feel free to leave a comment or email me at alex@SeatGeek.com.  Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @Seatgeek, and Like us on Facebook.

On July 8th 2010, LeBron James held his much anticipated hour long TV special, “The Decision” live on ESPN, in which he announced his intention to sign with the Miami Heat. This announcement didn’t shock the world, as much as it just pissed it off, if by “the world” you mean Cleveland, and by “pissed it off” you mean “held mass burnings of all LBJ merchandise.” However, Cleveland’s pain is Miami’s gain, and for every heartbroken Cavs fan out there, there is an equally thrilled South Beach-er. In addition to shelling out the $70 it will take to get one’s hands on a new Bosh or LeBron jersey, these fans have shown their willingness to part with big bucks to see the “new Heat” take the court this year. Below we have compiled a list of a selection of the most anticipated Heat games this season.

The Heat begin the season in Boston against the defending Eastern Conference Champion Celtics. As we detailed in this previous post, ticket prices for that game are second highest in the league amongst teams’ home openers, with an average listing price of $435, second only to the Heat themselves, whose opening game tickets are currently listed at $442.

In fact, the Heat’s first three games are the three most expensive home openers in the league, indicating that fans across the country are eager to see LeBron, Wade, Bosh and company.

Miami Heat Ticket Prices

10/26/10 @Boston – Avg. price $435

10/27/10 @Philadelphia- Avg. price $332

10/29/10 vs. Orlando- Avg. price $442

However, despite the initial hype surrounding the Heat’s first few games, interest in the boys from South Beach does not seem to diminish after the beginning of the season. Rather, Heat ticket prices remain outrageously high throughout the season. Other noteworthy Miami games include:

Lebron’s return to Cleveland – 12/2/10 @Cleveland – Avg. price $356

Cavaliers first visit to Miami – 12/15/10 vs. Cleveland – Avg. price $248

Heat’s first visit to New York – 12/17/10 @New York – Avg. price $385

Heat’s first game against defending champion Lakers, Christmas Day, – 12/25/10 @LA Lakers – Avg. price $894!

Chris Bosh’s return to Toronto – 2/16/11 @Toronto – Avg. price $291

Miami Heat Ticket Prices (same data as above, graphed)

Clearly the Heat are a ticketing force to be reckoned with. In addition to leading the league in average ticket price, a league leading 29 of their games will be broadcast on national TV! To put that in perspective, the Heat will be featured nationally more times than the Nets, 76ers, Pistons, Pacers, Raptors, Grizzlies, Timberwolves and Cavaliers combined!

So if you want to jump on the bandwagon, grab your new number 6 jersey, and log onto SeatGeek for all your Heat ticket needs.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to email me at chad@seatgeek.com with any questions, and remember to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @SeatGeek.

Attention Red Sox and Yankees fans – wait to buy tickets to either of their two upcoming AL East showdowns. As of 8/24/2010  Seatgeek.com is forecasting that the series in the Bronx on 9/24-9/26 will see a Sharp decrease in the average price per ticket between now and the series. Similarly, today we are also forecasting a Moderate decrease in ticket price for the games at Fenway Park 10/1-10/03, the final series of the season for either team. Despite the price forecast for each game, tickets to this series are currently going for more than the highest average ticket price for MLB last week.

A lot can change in the AL East despite the 5.5 game lead that the Rays and Yankees have maintained over their division rivals, the Red Sox. Both the AL Wild Card and a Division Championship are still a reality for the Red Sox, although it will require keeping pace and strong performances in each of their final two series with the Yankees. No matter how awesome the AL East race could be if the Red Sox can keep pace, we can’t deny that it is still a HUGE IF.

Below, you can see the average prices per ticket for both of the upcoming series:

• The most affordable tickets for the first series are to the 9/26/10 game at Yankee Stadium , with an average ticket price of $116.33, and can be found for as cheap as $40 a ticket.

• The most affordable tickets for the final series can be found for the season finale on 10/3/10 at Fenway Park, with an average ticket price of $142.29, and tickets can be found for as cheap as $87 a ticket.

• This graph shows the data sorted from high price to low price, and you can see that the final series in Boston is holding a higher average price

• The most expensive tickets for 10/2/2010 game can at Fenway can be had for an average of $169.13, and as low as $88 per ticket

The average price per series is indicated below:

• Ticket Prices for the  final series of the season between the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway park are an average of 22.6% higher than the series in the Bronx.

Hopefully the above information can help you make the right decision when buying or selling tickets to either of the upcoming series.  Let me know if there are any questions or comments about the post by leaving a comment or emailing me at alex@SeatGeek.com ,  follow us @SeatGeek and @SeatGeekMLB, and like us on Facebook.

I am back with another edition of the ‘Weekly MLB Ticket Price Rankings‘. I am cutting the introduction this week so we can just look at the data.

10 Highest Ticket Prices in the MLB (August 17 – 23)

• The Twins are #1 again, with an average ticket price of $71.00, while the Blue Jays held up at #2 with an average ticket price of $70.29
• The big surprise of the week came from the White Sox, who have risen 3 spots to enter the top 5, at #3, with an average price of $65.55 per ticket
• The Mets are back in the top 5, but this is attributable to the drop in other teams’ prices, not the rise of the Mets’ prices
• The Washington Nationals are a new entrant into the top 10 (check out our Nationals ticket prices page and you can see the uptick in their chart this week)
• The Giants were the only team to fall out of the top ten (see San Francisco Giants price details)

MLB Ticket Price Shifts

• The Mets moved up the most spots this week, but there prices increased less than $1 – what is interesting about this is the fall of the Yankees and the other teams hovering around the top 5 (check out our full coverage of Mets ticket price changes)
• Yankees ticket prices dropped drastically from $68.66 to $47.94 on average this week (check out our detailed coverage of the declining Yankees prices)

10 Cheapest MLB Ticket Prices

• For the second week in a row, the Brewers, Pirates and Angels have the cheapest tickets in the MLB
• Interestingly for consumers, average Angels ticket prices continue to fall and are now less than $20 – at 87% of face value for their next home game!

Thanks for reading, let me know if you have any thoughts on the rankings by commenting below. In particular, does anyone have insights as to why prices in general are on the decline with many teams in the top 10? Why are Yankees prices so low? Why have White Sox prices been rising over the last few months?

On Saturday August 28th, the UFC heads to Boston for the first time with a highly anticipated main event between Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn (Edgar vs Penn 2 for the Light Heavyweight Championship). In their first fight, on April 10, 2010 at UFC 112, Edgar won a narrow and controversial decision after 5 rounds of fighting. This Saturday, they meet again in a much anticipated rematch and I teamed up with James Kimball from MMAmania.com to provide some expert insights beyond the fan demand data that we always bring you here at SeatGeek (I have incorporated his thoughts in italics throughout this post).

There are some other interesting storylines for the event as well: 1) This is the first UFC event in Boston 2) The co-main event is Randy Couture vs James Toney (UFC vs Boxing).

James Kimball weighed in on UFC’s Boston debut:

The UFC makes its long awaited debut in the sports tradition-rich city of Boston, Massachusetts and with it brings one of their biggest events of the year in UFC 118. Zuffa, the controlling entity of the UFC, until recently staged the majority of their shows in the fight capital of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada. But with the exponential growth of the UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts as a whole, expansion is necessary, and “Beantown” is as fertile of a fight fan ground as any.

As you an see, even among experts, Boston has a reportedly strong and “fertile” fan base. Of course at SeatGeek we are experts in fan sentiment analysis, so we wanted to take a deeper look at UFC 118 ticket data and test just how passionate Boston fans are for mixed martial arts – results below.

UFC 118 Ticket Prices

• UFC 118 is going for an average ticket price of $288
• UFC 118 ticket prices are 132.3% higher than UFC 119 ticket prices, which are currently $124 on average
• Even though the average is high, UFC 118 tickets start at $118
• This chart validates the speculation that Beantown is a great market for MMA and the UFC

James shared his thoughts as to the drivers of demand for UFC 118 in much more detail than I could provide:

The real interest of this event doesn’t revolve around the UFC’s debut in Boston, or even the main event featuring a rematch between Frankie Edgar and B.J. Penn for the lightweight title, which we’ll touch on in a moment. The real interest, the reason so many extra eyes are tuned in to the lead up to UFC 118 is the heavyweight fight between aging boxer James “Lights Out” Toney and MMA legend Randy “The Natural” Couture. While the particular combatants in this match up are very appealing considering both of their accomplishments in their respective sports, it is the idea of MMA vs. Boxing, or UFC vs. Boxing as Dana White and Zuffa’s marketing team has labeled the showdown, that truly grasps the attention of fight fans.

As the two most prominent fight sports on the planet, mixed martial arts and boxing always have been, and always will be compared to one another. Will the outcome of the fight between Toney and Couture prove that MMA is superior to boxing or vice versa? No. But it sure does create for one highly intriguing storyline. The fight serves no other purpose to the UFC other than to create buzz and ultimately increase pay-per-view buys. This is far from a title fight and even a number one contender bout. For all we know, James Toney, with a loss to Couture, could be one and done with the sport of MMA, while Randy’s natural weight class is light heavyweight. Considering all of this, the UFC had no other choice than to promote the bout as UFC vs Boxing. That general concept is enough to draw in plenty of eyeballs that would have otherwise been set on something else the night of August 28.

UFC 118 Details

Event: UFC 118 – Penn vs Edgar 2 (tickets available here)

Where: TD Garden   Boston, MA

When: Saturday August 28, 2010 at 7:20 pm

Co-Main Event: Toney vs Couture

UFC 118 Trailer

Thanks for reading our first post here at SeatGeek on MMA/UFC. I look forward to covering this sport a lot more on the SeatGeek blog (it is my personal favorite).  I would like to send a huge thanks to James Kimball with MMAMania for providing his detailed thoughts on UFC 118 and I hope to be able to tap into his expertise in subsequent discussions of MMA here at SeatGeek.

Thoughts/questions/suggestions? Please comment below or get in touch with me at chad@seatgeek.com.

We are excited to announce our first extension into a non-North American market via a partnership with UK-based Stereoboard.com, a site that offers the latest music news, tour news, band merchandise, tour dates and concert tickets. Officially launched in 2002, Stereoboard.com has grown to be one of the top sources for concert tickets in the UK, while also maintaining a variety of other features and benefits, such as its user community.

SeatGeek Co-Founder, Russ D’Souza, commented, “We are really happy about this partnership with Stereoboard.com because now their users can buy tickets for events that previously were not available to them. In addition, this allows us to extend SeatGeek’s reach to a whole new market of music fans”.

Stereoboard has had great success since its launch, attracting over 1.5 million monthly visitors who use the site to compare and buy tickets. With this growth, they discovered that many visitors to their site were interested in events in the United States. To satisfy this demand, SeatGeek integrated into Stereoboard.com by offering concert tickets whenever a visitor searches for an artist that is touring in the US. The screenshot below highlights the integration. A search for Eminem tickets now offers the option to buy for either UK or US events within the pre-existing UI.

Stereoboard.com founder and Managing Director Nigel Sachdev added, “Stereoboard.com is delighted to be working with Seatgeek. We are happy to have found a ticket comparison site that, like us, firmly places fans first. We feel Seatgeek matches our own ambitions, and we look forward to working together on developing a strategic relationship for mutual benefit. I am extremely pleased with the early successes we’ve seen in monetising our US and Canadian web traffic and we’re excited by the potential of this partnership for future success.”

We are extremely excited to be working with Stereoboard.com as well and wish them success as they continue their growth as a market leader in the concert/music space.

Feel free to reach out to me at chad@seatgeek.com if you have any questions or would like to discuss partnership opportunities.

Today we wrote about how the average price for Yankees home game tickets has been falling recently.  The same thing has happened with New York Mets tickets, albeit for different reasons.  The average price for Mets tickets rose quickly in the beginning of the season, then hovered around their season average of $73.  They finished April in the lead of the NL East and that consistency in ticket price can be attributed to their division leading start ( 14-9 at the end of April).

*as of 08/19/2010

Their ticket prices peaked in mid-May, when the subway series commenced with a visit from the New York Yankees.  The average Mets ticket for the subway series on 5/21/2010-5/23/2010 was $124.76 for game 1, $136.42 for game 2, and $107.44 for game 3.  Since then, the average price for a Mets ticket has been in gradual decline. You can see that the low point of the season happened this August.  On August 10 against the Rockies, the average ticket price hit a season low for the Mets, $54.66 per ticket.

I’d have to speculate that the Mets’ performance directly before and also after the All-Star break is a contributing factor to the decline in average price.  They haven’t left themselves much of a chance to make the post season, and are so inconsistent that the most loyal fans are pulling their hair out (I live with one).  At the All-Star break, the Mets record was 48-40, and they were only trailing the Atlanta Braves by 4 games.  Since then they are 12-20 and 11 games behind the Braves for the NL East lead with a .500 record of 60 wins and 60 losses.  To add insult to injury, they also recently lost their star closer for the season, K-Rod, because of an off-the-field incident.

*as of 08/19/2010

Here at SeatGeek we do the math to save you money, and Mets seats are as affordable as ever.  In fact, the 5 most expensive Mets games already happened! As mentioned above, the subway series tickets during May were the crowning jewel from a price perspective for the Mets. With the way they have been playing, its no surprise that the market has slid as much as it has for these tickets.  Despite all that, its a great time to see a Mets game at a great price, and you can still have Metropolitans of Fun.

If you have any questions or comments about the post, feel free to leave a comment or email alex@SeatGeek.com.  Stay up to date by following @SeatGeek and @SeatGeekMLB on Twitter  and Like us on Facebook.