Iowa’s record-setting Caitlin Clark drives record-high ticket prices

Iowa’s record-setting Caitlin Clark drives record-high ticket prices

Want to be in the building and don’t already have a ticket for when Iowa’s Caitlin Clark potentially breaks Pete Maravich’s NCAA Division I scoring record? It’ll cost you.

According to secondary market seller TickPick, the average purchase price for a ticket to Sunday’s game between No. 6 Iowa and No. 2 Ohio State at 15,000-seat Carver-Hawkeye Arena is $546, the most expensive on record for a women’s basketball game, college or pro. The most expensive purchase was two tickets in Section B, Row 36 for $877 each. The get-in price, based on a search of other secondary markets, is roughly $300 for a standing room only ticket.

The previous most expensive average purchase price, according to TickPick, was $394 for Iowa’s win over Michigan on Feb. 15, when Clark became the NCAA women’s career scoring leader and set the Hawkeyes’ single-game scoring mark with 49 points. A used ticket from that game recently sold on eBay for $347.

Caitlin Clark’s relentless climb into the record books

Clark scored 33 points and registered her 17th career triple-double in Iowa’s 106-80 win at Minnesota on Wednesday, which came before the second-ever sold-out women’s basketball game at Williams Arena. The performance pushed Clark’s career scoring total past previous record-holder Lynette Woodard, who starred at Kansas from 1977 to 1981 before the NCAA took over governance of women’s sports, and moved her within 17 points of matching Maravich’s total of 3,667, which the former LSU star accomplished over three years.

Iowa sold out of women’s basketball season tickets for the first time in school history, mostly on account of Clark, the 6-foot point guard who has become college basketball’s must-see attraction while rewriting the record books over the past four years. Seven of the 10 most expensive women’s basketball games on TickPick’s list are Iowa games from this season, and the Big Ten recently announced that it sold out next week’s women’s tournament in Minneapolis for the first time.

As the Hawkeyes prepare to celebrate Senior Day on Sunday, Clark, who has one year of college eligibility remaining, has yet to announce if she will return to Iowa for a fifth season.

In Caitlin Clark, Pete Maravich has a studious and worthy heir

“You know, I’m just focused on this team right now, playing my heart out for Iowa and getting to represent my state every single day,” Clark said after Iowa’s upset loss to Indiana last week. “That’s what it’s all about. I’m not really too worried about the future. That is what it is. It comes when it comes. Whatever I decide.”

If Clark decides to turn pro, she’s expected to be the first pick by the Indiana Fever in April’s WNBA draft. Not for nothing, but a half-season ticket plan for the Fever starts at $350, or about the price to attend Sunday’s game in Iowa City. A ticket to the Fever’s 2024 season opener on May 14 against the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., can be had for roughly $35.

The most expensive women’s basketball games on record, by average purchase price, according to TickPick:

Ohio State at Iowa (Sunday): $546*

Michigan at Iowa (Feb. 15): $394

Illinois at Iowa (Feb. 25): $381

Indiana at Iowa (Jan. 13): $273

Iowa at Northwestern (Jan. 31): $256

Alabama at South Carolina (Feb. 22): $190

Nebraska at Iowa (Jan. 27): $173

WNBA All-Star Game (July 10, 2022): $150

WNBA Finals Game 3: Las Vegas at New York (Oct. 25, 2023): $148

Penn State at Iowa (Feb. 8): $142

*As of Thursday morning