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Duke-UNC stars push ticket prices to Super Bowl level

With some tickets going for as high as $10,000, Wednesday's edition of the Battle of Tobacco Road is expected be historic, even for one of the basketball's most stories rivalries.
Credit: AP
Duke's Zion Williamson (1) celebrates after he scored against North Carolina State during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Durham, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

DURHAM, N.C. — The UNC-Duke Rivalry, also known as the Battle of Tobacco Road, is one of the greatest rivalries in college basketball and all of American sports. Separated by 10 minutes, the two schools have combined for 10, or one quarter, of the national championships in the last four decades.

Featuring high quality basketball and NBA talent, a Duke-UNC ticket is typically the hardest ticket to find in the sport. However, the upcoming game at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, is setting itself apart from even those lofty standards.

Duke, ranked #1 in the country, features the top player in the sport and likely number one NBA draft pick Zion Williamson. North Carolina, ranked #8 in the latest AP poll, comes into the game determined to expose the Blue Devils.

Interest is reaching untold heights, especially with the prices for tickets.

On the ticket site StubHub!, their lowest price for a ticket to the game is at $2,7826 while the most expensive ticket is more than $6,200. Vivid Seats has tickets priced slightly higher. Sporting News reported a ticket sold on Vivid for more than $10,000.

To put that number in perspective, the average price for a Super Bowl ticket this year in Atlanta was between $2,500 to $3,000 according to Seat Geek.

Seat Geek says the average resale value of the Game 2 of the NBA Finals last year, the most expensive of the four, at $1,245. Meanwhile the average ticket prices for last year's World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers ranged from about $1,300 to more than $1,700, according to Yahoo Sports.

According to Forbes, the ticket prices for the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship average at around $640. Forbes also reported the most expensive regular season college football game in 2018 was the return of the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry, whose average resale value topped $900. 

Williamson is not the only basketball player who is driving high ticket prices this year.

LeBron James' move to the Los Angeles Lakers this year has made price skyrocket. Still, even with the Celtics' annual visit to the Staples Center in LA to renew the NBA's greatest rivalry, ticket prices range from about $225 to about $4,500, according StubHub!. This does not include suites or court side seats, which cost as high as $15,000.

Duke-UNC will face off Wednesday night at 8 p.m CT on ESPN.

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