Florida State-Alabama is being billed as the biggest opening game in college football history.
And for good reason.
There has never been a No. 1 versus No. 2, or No. 3, matchup to open a college football season. Unless the Coaches’ and AP polls throw us for a loop when they are released in early August, Alabama should be ranked No. 1 and FSU no worse than No. 3. Throw in that the showdown will take place in the brand new $1.6 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and you’ve got all the makings of an incredibly hyped game.
“This is a GOAT game, the greatest opener of all time. It’s going to be electric,” Gary Stokan, president and CEO of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, told Wake Up Warchant. “That plus the new stadium, plus Jimbo (Fisher) and Nick (Saban) both being West Virginia guys, plus being friends that have coached on a national championship team. Plus, since 2010 Florida State is second in wins only to Alabama … And arguably Jimbo and Nick are two of the top coaches in the country.”
If you need further proof, check out the astronomical ticket prices.
According to SeatGeek, a ticket search engine for live entertainment and sporting events, the average resale price for a ticket to the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game is currently selling for $712. To put that into perspective, a ticket to last season’s national championship game went for an average of $607. And if the $712 figure holds, it will become the priciest ticket to a regular-season contest since SeatGeek began tracking the secondary market in 2010.
The record to date for a regular-season ticket is $649 -- the Sept. 2013 game between Alabama at Texas A&M.
“I think this is going to be one of the most exciting games of the college football season, and that clearly seems to be the way fans feel as well,” SeatGeek Content Analyst Nate Rattner told Warchant.com. “People want to be there in person for what should be a championship-level game and environment. The brand new stadium is definitely a factor as well -- we've seen in the past that demand can spike for events in new arenas or stadiums. That could be a big reason for the demand we're seeing from local fans in the Atlanta area.”
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Without question, this year’s season opener will blow the doors off FSU’s record for ticket prices. Since 2010, the highest resale price for a regular-season game was $230 for the 2011 FSU-Oklahoma matchup in Tallahassee. The next closest were tickets to FSU at Clemson in 2013, which went for an average of $227 apiece.
“People have been talking about this game since after last year,” noted Stokan. “That’s what’s great about this game, the exposure you get from everybody talking about it. We’ll probably have (ESPN College) GameDay there … the TV ratings, prime time on ABC the first week will probably be through the roof.”
While the ticket price tag for FSU’s opener is unprecedented for a regular-season game, it doesn’t come close to the all-time record. A ticket to the January 2012 national championship showdown between LSU and Alabama resold for a whopping $1,815 on average.
Not surprisingly, fans from the states of Alabama and Florida are scooping up the lion’s share of the tickets in the secondary market. However, a significant percentage of the purchases are coming from Georgia, home of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff. That could be due to large number of FSU and Alabama alumni residing in the Peach State.
Ticket breakdown by state:
* Alabama: 25 percent
* Florida: 22 percent
* Georgia: 20 percent
* Texas: 5 percent
* California: 4 percent
The game is officially sold but, but tickets can still be purchased through SeatGeek. Prices vary from $450 to $1,600.
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