Football fans hoping to see a pair of Super Bowl tickets under the tree this week will need to be on the top of Santa’s nice list, with the NFL’s championship game once again topping the ranking for most expensive US sporting event of the year.
Super Bowl LIII fetched an average price of US$4,320 per ticket on StubHub this year, according to data provided to reporters, topping the ticket exchange platform’s top 10 list of the priciest US sports events, with the Masters golf tournament and NBA Finals rounding out the top three.
Fans can also expect February’s yet-to-be-determined Super Bowl matchup will once again reign supreme.
“When you look at the teams that are likely to be in the Super Bowl, you’re looking at really, really strong fan bases,” said Akshay Khanna, general manager of NFL, NBA and NHL with StubHub. “We expect a pretty strong and healthy Super Bowl market.”
However, this year’s ranking was not without its surprises, with the Masters snagging an average of US$2,065 per ticket, the second-priciest on StubHub’s list, despite not cracking the top 10 ranking last year.
Tiger Woods’ redemption arc drove blockbuster sales, as he completed one of sport’s greatest career comebacks to win at Augusta National Golf Club after an 11-year major title drought in front of a fierce crowd of fans that proved the “Tiger Effect” is as compelling as ever.
“For those people who were lucky enough to be there on Sunday to watch a red-shirted Tiger fist-pump his way to a Masters victory, that is a truly [an] ‘I will always remember this’ moment,” Khanna told reporters.
While the Masters is a reliable draw for fans, Khanna said that interest accelerated as it became clear that the 43-year-old American was within driving distance of glory.
“Really, those last two days leading into the final Sunday where people said: ‘Wow, I want to be there to be able to catch history,’” he said.
The NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors, and the NHL Stanley Cup Finals between the St Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins saw average ticket prices of US$1,672 and US$1,343 respectively on StubHub in the third and fourth spots.
World Series tickets for the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros were the fifth-priciest for the year, fetching an average of US$1,093 per ticket on StubHub.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwanese martial artists bagged one gold, four silver and three bronze medals at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei Darussalam said yesterday. Liu Yu-tzu won the gold medal in the girl’s taijiquan A group and also picked up a silver medal in the girl’s taijijian A group. Hu Hsin-ling, Yu Min-hsun and Chen Chao-hsiang each won a silver medal in the girl’s jianshu B, boy’s nangun B and boy’s taijijian A groups respectively. Hu also won a bronze medal in the girl’s qiangshu B group, while Yu and Lin Shih-hung picked up bronze medals
RSS