Demand is High for Sports in First Half of 2024
The first half of 2024 has ended, meaning several major sporting events have already occurred this year. Looking at the last six months, one thing’s clear: live events are in demand.
The year started out strong with Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. The Chiefs secured their second consecutive Super Bowl win. . Nine days out from kickoff, the get-in price was $7,900 – more expensive than the average ticket price at the same time last year.
Not long after the Super Bowl was the Daytona 500, which ended with an average ticket price of $205 – pocket change compared to the Super Bowl.
The next month was March Madness; it confirmed the brightening spotlight on women’s sports. Without yet knowing who was in the championship game, the women’s championship get-in price was $380, and the men’s was only $195. Once the Final Four was decided, the women’s championship still had a higher average ticket price than the men’s.
March also featured Opening Day for MLB. The defending World Series champions, the Texas Rangers, hosted the Chicago Cubs and had the highest average sold price in the league at $350.
Possibly the only other major sporting event that can compare to the Super Bowl in terms of ticket prices was the Masters. In the days leading up to the April tournament, the practice round had a higher average ticket price than the final few days, likely due to the guarantee of seeing Tiger Woods. As of the Monday before, Wednesday’s practice round had an average ticket price of $2,500, while the final Sunday’s was $2,100.
The last weekend of April had two major events: the Kentucky Derby and Miami Grand Prix. The former had two-day general admission tickets for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks for $206 on secondary market TFL. The Miami Grand Prix had three-day campus passes starting at $450.
May saw the start of the WNBA’s 2024 regular season – the first for NCAA all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark. Clark has brought increased attendance to the league; ahead of the league’s first game, tickets sold were 1.9x higher when Clark and the Indiana Fever were included in the matchup, accounting for 65% of all ticket sales.
June’s big event was the NBA Finals. The Boston Celtics won the best-of-seven series in five games. The series had an average ticket price of $1,660 across the five games, with prices increasing as the series went along.
