Want to see Coach K’s last home game? The cost is the equivalent of a Super Bowl ticket

There have been highly anticipated Duke-North Carolina games over the years, and then there is what we have Saturday, the final time Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski will coach a game inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Only No. 4 Duke enters as a legitimate national title contender. But that hasn’t stopped fans from digging deep into their wallets to buy a coveted ticket. On average, they are paying Super Bowl-level prices. On3 checked in with TickPick, the New York-based, no-fee secondary ticket marketplace, for insights into buying habits for fans hoping to watch Coach K’s last home game in person.

“We have seen some pretty astronomical prices for Duke-UNC these last several years, but prices for Coach K’s [home] finale are on another level,” Brett Goldberg, TickPick’s co-founder and co-CEO, told On3 in an email. “This is the most expensive college basketball game on record. Not only is this a historic rivalry and the last time fans can see Coach K in action at Cameron Indoor, but inventory is extremely limited.”

Here’s TickPick’s data, as of Wednesday morning, for the game. Duke-UNC tips off at 6 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN:

Current get-in price: $3,776 (lowest point was $3,150 last Friday)
Average purchase price: $5,697
Most expensive purchase: Four tickets purchased in Section 5, Row J for $7,370 a ticket ($29,480 total)
Best seats available: Section 19, Row F for $12,095

TickPick offered some average prices from other big events for comparison. For the NBA Finals, no average ticket price in the past seven seasons (not including the pandemic-impacted 2020 Finals played in the Orlando bubble) has eclipsed $1,682.80, the average ticket price for Game 3 of the 2019 Finals between Toronto and Golden State.

As for recent Super Bowls, only Kansas City-Tampa Bay ($7,312.98) and Kansas City-San Francisco ($6,545.90) noticeably surpassed Saturday’s average. The average ticket price for this year’s Super Bowl ($5,996.96) was on par with the average for Duke-UNC.

What’s more, the average ticket price for Saturday dwarfs the average cost to attend the UNC-Duke game at 9,314-seat Cameron in recent seasons. In 2019, the average price was $2,302.35; in 2020, it was $1,742.21.

These are all-in prices because TickPick does not charge added fees. Because of that, they end up being, on average, 10 percent cheaper. It is also the only site that offers prospective buyers 360-degree seat views that provide a sense of the viewing experience will be like.

There is no record on the average cost to watch Coach K’s first victory at Duke on Nov. 29, 1980, against Stetson at Cameron. But chances are it fell a little shy of $5,930.