SPORTS

Ticket demand lower for late-season Gov. Cup

Jonathan Lintner
@JonathanLintner
Fans pack Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Ky., Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, for the NCAA college football game season-opener for Kentucky and Louisville in Louisville, Ky., Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Garry Jones)

It'll cost, on average, more than twice as much to get into the Kentucky-Louisville basketball game as Saturday's football matchup, and the hoops rivalry tilt is still a month away.

According to secondary market ticket aggregator SeatGeek.com, which combines listings and tracks sales from sellers such as StubHub and TicketsNow, this year's ticket to Papa John's Cardinal Stadium should be easier to come by than when the game was played to open other seasons in the 55,000-seat configuration.

SeatGeek.com communication analyst Connor Gregoire said this week -- and these numbers are as of the Tuesday before kickoff -- that the average price of a ticket sold for Saturday's game is $127, down from $152 in 2012 and $141 in 2010. Cheapest available Tuesday was $63, a tick down from $86 in 2012 and $83 in 2010.

"Interesting note about where shoppers are coming from: 70% are from the Louisville metro area as opposed to just 11% from the Lexington metro area," Gregoire said. "...It should be a very Cardinals-friendly crowd."

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Demand is seemingly always greater when the Governor's Cup game is played in Louisville. For recent meetings at Commonwealth Stadium, average price/cheapest available in 2013 was $96/$49 and in 2011 was $122/$62.

U of L-UK measures up as the 10th-priciest ticket available for this weekend's college football slate behind other SEC/ACC in-state rivalries such as South Carolina Clemson, Georgia-Georgia Tech and Florida-Florida State.

Cheapest secondary market Cards-Cats basketball tickets are, by the way, $184 at SeatGeek.com to sit in the KFC Yum! Center's rafters on Dec. 27.