Terrell Owens finally has a new home. After enduring a summer of irrelevancy and no serious offers, T.O mania took hold this week as rumors abounded that the loudmouthed receiver would be signing, with first the Rams, then the Jets, and finally the Cincinnati Bengals. Coming off of a sub par year by his standards, T.O should be committed and ready to make an impact for the Bengals, who made the playoffs last season. In going to Cincinnati, T.O teams up with arguably the only more out-sized personality in the N.F.L, in Chad Ochocinco. He signed a one year contract worth $2 million, with performance incentives for over $1 million more. It will be interesting to see whether, T.O can get along, with his new team, and whether his performance on the field will be worth the headache he inevitably causes off of it.

One thing is for certain however, his arrival has created quite a stir in the Bengals ticket market. For the 2010 season, Bengals tickets were transacting at an average price of 106.45 as of July 25th. As of this morning, July 28th, Bengals home game tickets were listing at an average of $133.38, an increase of 25.3%!

It is too early to tell how this acquisition will affect transaction prices, however since listing and transaction prices are inextricably linked, it can reasonably be assumed that higher listing prices correspond to higher transaction prices, meaning if you wanted to get in to the see the Bengals on the cheap, it would have been better to purchase your tickets yesterday. However, seeing Ochocinco and Owens lined up on the same line of scrimmage is worth a premium to me. Although prices have gone up, SeatGeek still has the cheapest Bengals tickets anywhere.

Please feel free to email me at jonathan@seatgeek.com and don’t forget to like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter @SeatGeek and @SeatGeekNFL

Enter Now–> Redirect to Twitter to Tweet this and enter! or Redirect to Facebook to ‘Like’ and enter!

With A-Rod still stuck at #599, the SeatGeek contest to win $100 worth of tickets will go on. Now that the Yankees have left Yankee Stadium and are playing on the road, it is necessary to update your predictions (or make your first prediction) with a section in the stadium he is now playing in, Progressive Field. Please note, if you entered the original contest, you will still be eligible to win a free player tee for that contest and your guess will be reentered if the Yankees return back to Yankee Stadium (but feel free to make a new guess for Progressive).

To refresh your memory, all you need to do to enter the contest is either follow us on Twitter @SeatGeek and in a mention to us, give us your predictions, OR like us on Facebook and post your prediction on our wall. In the event of a tie, a winner win be randomly selected from the correct entries.

Note: you must be following us on Twitter, or “Like” us on Facebook in order to be eligible to win.

According to our data, there is a 65% chance he hits #600 in Cleveland. Enter now for the chance to win.

Rivalries have always played a huge role in sports and we all know the fun in rooting against a team we hate. In the past, rivals have been compared in a number of ways, from who has the best current team to who has won the most championships to who has the best fans. We at SeatGeek thought it would be interesting to compare rivals based on transactions on the secondary ticket market, which we have found to be a great judge of fan sentiment.  Three weeks ago, we looked at the Mets-Phillies rivalry and earlier this week we looked at the Giants-Dodgers rivalry. Today, we will be looking at the rivalry between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs.

The first graph shows the average transaction price per month for February through July. The ticket price data is based on the date transacted, not which game the tickets are for, meaning that if a ticket is bought in February for a game in July, the data is part of February’s average.

• Average Cubs ticket prices are greater than Cardinals ticket prices every month, even though the Cardinals have an 11.5 game lead over the Cubs. This could largely be due to the Cubs playing in Chicago, the third largest city in the United States.
• Once the season started in April, the Cubs highest month coincided with the Cardinals lowest month, May.

We also thought it would be interesting to track the ticket price changes as a percentage change over time – with February as our base month.

This allows us to compare consumer sentiment fluctuations across different teams on the same scale. For a more simple example, lets look at two teams; Team A and Team B. In February, Team A’s tickets are $5 and Team B’s tickets are $30. In June Team A”s tickets are $10 and Team B’s tickets are $20. That means Team A experienced a 100% increase in ticket prices and Team B experienced a 33.3% decrease in ticket prices. Therefore:

• Cardinals tickets purchased in July are 18% below the price of tickets transacted in February.
• Cubs tickets purchased in July are 24% below the price of tickets transacted in February.
• Excluding May, the Cardinals and Cubs ticket prices follow a very similar trend.

We will keep you updated. We plan on updating these plots monthly, in addition to looking at other rivalries. Stay tuned.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @SeatGeekMLB and email max@seatgeek.com with any questions or comments.

Rivalries have always played a huge role in sports and we all know the fun in rooting against a team we hate. In the past, rivals have been compared in a number of ways, from who has the best current team to who has won the most championships to who has the best fans. We at SeatGeek thought it would be interesting to compare rivals based on transactions on the secondary ticket market, which we have found to be a great judge of fan sentiment.  Three weeks ago, we looked at the Mets-Phillies rivalry. Today, we will be looking at the rivalry between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The first graph shows the average transaction price per month for February through July. The ticket price data is based on the date transacted, not which game the tickets are for, meaning that if a ticket is bought in February for a game in July, the data is part of February’s average.

• Average Giants ticket prices are greater than or equal to Dodgers ticket prices every month.
• July is a very interesting month for the Dodgers. We are not completely sure what was the cause of such an extreme drop. During July, the Dodgers are 6-8 and are currently 5.5 games out of first place, which might have caused fan sentiment to fall, and with that, ticket prices.
• Though this data is based on the transaction date and not the game date, about 40% of secondary market tickets for a game are usually bought with a week of the event and over half are usually bought within 2 weeks. The fact that our data for July only includes data through July 19th, and so far this month the only teams the Dodgers have played at home are the Cubs and the Marlins, two below .500 teams, could also explain the significant drop in average ticket price.
• Please comment below with any other ideas you might have regarding the significant drop in Dodgers ticket prices in July.

We also thought it would be interesting to track the ticket price changes as a percentage change over time – with February as our base month.

This allows us to compare consumer sentiment fluctuations across different teams on the same scale. For a more simple example, lets look at two teams; Team A and Team B. In February, Team A’s tickets are $5 and Team B’s tickets are $30. In June Team A”s tickets are $10 and Team B’s tickets are $20. That means Team A experienced a 100% increase in ticket prices and Team B experienced a 33.3% decrease in ticket prices. Therefore:

• Giants tickets purchased in July are 19% below the price of tickets transacted in February.
• Dodgers tickets purchased in July are 49% below the price of tickets transacted in February.
• Up until July, Giants and Dodgers tickets follow an remarkably similar pattern. Prior to July, both teams’ changes in average ticket prices tracked within a 5% range of each other.

We will keep you updated. We plan on updating these plots monthly, in addition to looking at other rivalries. Stay tuned.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @SeatGeekMLB and email max@seatgeek.com with any questions or comments.

Alex Rodriguez hit another home run yesterday for the Yankees, giving him fifteen on the season, and 598 for his career. The home run snapped a slight power drought for A-Rod, and put him only two home runs away from joining the 600 Home Run Club!

Last week, SeatGeek and Hit Tracker released their report on when and where Rodriguez will hit the milestone 600th home run. They determined that he is most likely to hit it on July 25, versus the Kansas City Royals. The most likely section for him to hit it is Section 136, while the most likely seat – dubbed “The Money Seat” – is Section 135, Row, 18, Seat 6.

See the full report here!

A-Rod hit one home run in the past three games since the All-Star break, and if he continues this pace, he will in fact hit number 600 on July 25th against the Royals. A home run every third games means he will hit 599 on July 22nd, during the first game of the series versus KC, and 600 on the last game of the Yankees current homestand.

While A-Rod seems poised to reach this milestone during this current homestand, there are indications that he may not hit two home runs in the next six games. As much as everyone wants to see Rodriguez hit number 600 in front of the home crowd, the home run could come in Cleveland or Tampa Bay – the next two destinations for the Yankees after their series against Kansas City finishes up.

In the event that A-Rod heads into the series versus the Indians at Progressive Field with 598 or 599 home runs, SeatGeek and Hit Tracker will have updated predictions, including the most likely sections in their stadium, as well as a probable trajectory and “Money Seat”.

Since the passing of Bob Sheppard and George Steinbrenner, we saw a substantial increase in Yankees ticket prices, as fans wanted to get to the stadium to pay their respects to two Yankees’ legends. With the tributes over, we can expect that now, Yankees fans are coming to the stadium hoping to witness history by seeing, and maybe even catching, A-Rod’s 600th home run.

Below is a chart with the average transaction prices of the upcoming games at Yankee Stadium, as well as a table showing the average listing prices in Section 135 and 136 for each game. As expected, the average transaction price for these games versus the Angels and Royals are less than for games versus the division rival Rays. Also, the average listing price for Sections 135 and 136 are substantially higher than the average transaction price for the games as a whole, since face value for these outfield sections are on the higher end for tickets for Yankees games.

If you’re looking to put yourself in the right place to potentially catch the ball, SeatGeek is the place for you to find your tickets. We have several listings aggregated from StubHub, RazorGator, and so on, in Section 135 and 136 for the upcoming Yankees games.

If you want the best chance to catch the ball, you need to be sitting in “The Money Seat”, on July 25. While SeatGeek doesn’t have that exact seat listed, there are two seats for sale that are pretty close. For that game, there are seats listed in Section 135, Row 18, Seats 1 & 2 (only 4 seats down from “The Money Seat”) for $98. If A-Rod does in fact hit home run number 600 there, all you’ll have to do is barrel through only four people to get to the souvenir ball!

As A-Rod approaches 600 home runs, be sure to check back with SeatGeek and Hit Tracker to see their updates. If you have any inquiries, feel free to email justin@seatgeek.com. And as always, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @SeatGeek!

Enter Now–> Redirect to Twitter to Tweet this and enter! or Redirect to Facebook to ‘Like’ and enter!

A-Rod is only 3 home runs away from becoming only the 7th Major League player in history to hit 600. In preparation for this historic event SeatGeek partnered with Hit Tracker Online to create the most accurate prediction of where and when A-Rod will hit the historic longball. We know where it’s most likely to go, so NOW IT’S YOUR TURN! Simply write on our wall, or tweet @seatgeek, and guess which section of Yankee Stadium his 600th HR is most likely to be hit into and you will be entered into our contest with a chance to win an A-Rod t-shirt or $100 worth of tickets. All you need to do is click on one of the links above and enter you section guess. But don’t wait. Time is running out! For more information, read the original contest post.

There are now only 12 hours left in the contest and we are close to reaching the 100 participant threshold where we will give away $100 worth of tickets to a MLB game or concert of your choosing.

Over the past week or so, at SeatGeek we have worked on our version of a MLB midseason report – ticket style. We took a comprehensive look how each team’s ticket sales on the secondary market have been, and we power ranked each team based on the transaction prices for tickets for each team. Here’s links to what we’ve done:

• Midseason Ticket Report – AL East
• Midseason Ticket Report – AL Central
• Midseason Ticket Report – AL West
• Midseason Ticket Report – NL East
• Midseason Ticket Report – NL Central
• Midseason Ticket Report – NL West

As the second half of the season commences, we wanted to look at the Top Fifteen games from this point on, as determined by the highest average transaction price for tickets for the game. Not surprisingly, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are involved in almost every one of the top games for the second half of 2010. Each game of the Red Sox last series in New York at Yankee Stadium (from September 24 – September 26) and the Yankees last series in Boston at Fenway Park (from October 1 – October 3) is included in the top fifteen, as well. Also, every game in the top fifteen takes place between teams in the American League.

Don’t forget to enter our contest to win a MLB player tee or tickets to a game of your choice, by correctly predicting on SeatGeek’s Twitter or Facebook where Alex Rodriguez is going to hit his milestone 600th home run.

Enter Now –> Redirect to Twitter to Tweet this and enter

Also, be sure to look out for our prediction of where A-Rod will hit HR number 600 at the end of the week, and make sure you follow us on Twitter @SeatGeek and ‘Like’ us on Facebook!

Hey guys,

If you follow our sports blog, there’s also a good chance you’ve seen our main blog. In case you haven’t, however, here are some of the sport stories that have been put up on the main blog recently:

Midseason ticket reports:

1. American League East

2. American League West

3. American League Central

4. National League East

A great post by our in-house baseball expert Max Fram on the Mets-Phillies rivalry.

Also, our partnership with Friendfeedr to offer locally relevant tickets to sports fans was news last week.

And finally, if you are interested in things other than sport, do keep checking our music blog and the main blog for great content.

Happy reading.

Yes, readers, the greatest show on earth, the FIFA world cup final, is upon us.

It is the world’s most widely viewed sporting event, with FIFA estimating that the 2006 final had a cumulative audience of 715 million viewers on television.

But what if you wanted to watch the FIFA world cup live, in person, in the electrifying Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa? If you checked the official FIFA ticketing site today – or yesterday – you would see four red cards for the four sections in the Soccer City stadium, indicating that the final was completely sold out. Indeed, FIFA also put out a press release today stating as much.

However, if you were really, really desperate, you could check the secondary ticket market online for tickets hoping that despite the Official Ban on reselling tickets, that brokers would be reselling them anyway. Turns out, you would be in luck.

A quick search on our very own SeatGeek homepage indicates that tickets are indeed available for this Sundays final, though obviously at highly inflated rates (the cheapest going for $1,453 for two section 3, row T tickets and the most expensive being 10 section 1 tickets listed at $5,808 a pop).

But how do they deliver your precious world cup tickets to you with just 3 days to go for the world cup final?

Not to worry says one site: Razorgator has committed to hand-delivering your world cup tickets in perso. They have an office in South Africa for just that purpose. They say on their website that “Razorgator will send a team of ticket/event specialists to South Africa to offer local delivery of tickets at a number of our courtesy pickup locations. Once your order is placed and confirmed and the tickets are ready for pickup, the courtesy pickup office and hours will be emailed to the address you provided with your order.”

So hey, with the average listing price of tickets at 1.5k and another couple grand for a plane ride and a hotel stay, you’d be setting yourself back half a year’s rent, but you can still attend the most watched sporting event in the world. Worth it? You decide.

You can thank us later (by using our wonderful service).

Yesterday, there was essentially “consensus” that LeBron would be joining the Knicks. Here at SeatGeek, we took a quick look speculating the impact this would have on Knicks ticket prices due to “The LeBron Premium”. Apparently, everyone jumped the gun, and speculation is currently favoring the Miami Heat as LeBron’s next team.

We did a quick analysis to project potential ticket prices for the Miami Heat if LeBron James joins forces with Wade. The data table displays projected prices on the interior that correspond with a respective baseline price and % potential increase (i.e. $81 corresponds with a $46 baseline price and a 75% increase in average prices). Last season, the Heat transacted tickets prices on the secondarty market averaged $46 (I have highlighted that row in the table below). The left row data is potential baseline prices, assuming that there could be some change season-to-season even without LeBron. The top column %s, represent the potential increase on ticket prices with LeBron – i.e. “The LeBron Premium”.

• We have presented the calculations across several potential % increases, as this LeBron scenario is truly unique so we do not have a solid historical proxy
• Tickets on the re-sale market could approach $75 dollars if “The LeBron Premium” proves to be around 50-75%
• For initial homestand games with LeBron in town, we could foresee +100% premiums, which would drive Miami Heat average ticket prices over $100 to see the first glimpses of King James in a Heat jersey

Thoughts or comments? Share below or reach out to us on Twitter at @SeatGeek and check back with us whenever you need MLB tickets, concert tickets or NFL tickets this summer and fall.

Image source and additional information at The Palm Beach Post