March Madness is in full swing, and with the Sweet 16 coming to Chicago for the Midwest Region, it seems as though Iowa State fans are the most interested in making the trip. Since Saturday, 23 percent of fans searching for tickets on SeatGeek are coming from said state, driving the average price of secondary tickets to $432 for a full strip.

The $432 price is actually cheaper than both the East and West Regions. A fan who just wants to see the Midwest Sweet 16 games is currently paying an average of $248, while a fan looking for tickets to the Midwest Elite 8 game is paying an average of $192.

March Madness Tickets


Likely driven by the demand from Iowa State fans, we have seen prices for the Sweet 16 session shoot up in the past 48 hours, going from a median listing price of $287 on Saturday morning to $402 currently, an increase of 40 percent. Interestingly prices didn’t drop too much after Michigan State’s first round upset, despite the face the Spartans would certainly have been a hot ticket in Chicago.

While many of the fans shopping for tickets since Saturday are coming from Illinois (28 percent), Iowa is a close second, with 23 percent coming from the neighboring state. The Iowa State campus is only a 5.5 hour drive to Chicago, a very doable trip to see your team in the Sweet 16. Only 5 percent of shoppers are coming from New York, and 4 percent are coming from Virginia. Just 1.5 percent is coming from Washington. Of course a school like Syracuse is more of a national brand, so more than just the 5 percent from New York will likely be wearing orange at the games.

The NCAA Tournament was last in Chicago in 2011, when the Windy City was host to first and second round games. The two first round sessions had average resale prices of $163 and $138. Interestingly the second round session had an average resale price of $189, almost the price of the Elite 8 game in the city this year. A full strip of tickets to all three sessions resold for an average of $468.

While Final Four ticket sales have not picked up too much yet, currently the average resale price of a ticket to the semifinals is $489, and a ticket to the championship is $539. However, ticket prices for both events currently start at less than $200 each.

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