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When is the best time to buy Cotton Bowl tickets? Not now, says secondary market
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
The following is a sponsored post from TiqIQ.
You’ve been here before, Alabama fans.
Sure, your Crimson Tide have punched their ticket to a second straight berth in the College Football Playoff, but being on hand to see them battle Michigan State will come at a lofty price. Lucky for you, though, ticket prices are dropping by the day on the secondary market.
According to secondary market ticket aggregator TiqIQ, the average price for Cotton Bowl tickets against the Michigan State Spartans has dropped since the teams were finalized on Selection Sunday, and that number continues to plummet in the days after the final four teams were announced.
Prices have fallen so hard in the last several days that fans hoping to attend are best waiting it out until the eleventh hour to purchase their tickets. The average price for Cotton Bowl tickets on TiqIQ is now $406.59, marking a 22.2% drop from last Thursday’s average of $522.47. If looking just to get into AT&T Stadium for the New Year’s Eve game, the cheapest ticket available is currently listed for $169.
Such a price trend was the case last season as well, when the Tide faced the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl. The game owned a peak ticket average of $599.40 on December 7, 2014 – three weeks prior to kickoff – and fell an outstanding 39.2% to $364.30 in the hours before the game began. The get-in price for last year’s game was $154.
Of course, Alabama fans will hope the end result is quite different. The Tide faithful need not be reminded of the harrowing upset Ohio State pulled off in New Orleans last season, where the No. 4 Buckeyes shocked the nation by taking down No. 1 Alabama, 42-35, to solidify a spot in the first-ever CFP National Championship. At the time, the game was most-watched cable television program in American history.
This year is different, however. Considered to possess one of the nation’s top defenses, Alabama has been a tour de force over the last three months, winning 10 straight games in relatively easy fashion. Heisman Trophy candidate Derrick Henry has propelled the offense all season, rushing for nearly 2,000 yards and posting 23 touchdowns. Michigan State, though a formidable opponent, enters the Cotton Bowl after a come-from-behind victory over Iowa to jump into the third seed of the CFP ranking. The two teams have met just once before, with Alabama cruising to a 49-7 victory in 2011.
Don’t just take advantage of dropping ticket prices on the resale market. Hipmunk.com offers the best deals on flights to Arlington and surrounding hotels. While flights can be arranged from anywhere in the world, Arlington hotels on Hipmunk start from just $45 per night during New Year’s Eve weekend.
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
