Colts lead AFC, lag NFC in playoff ticket prices

If Santa stuffed your stocking with some cash, you may want to attend Saturday’s Indianapolis Colts playoff game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Good seats to see the Colts battle the Kansas City Chiefs are still available, but they won’t be cheap.

As of Tuesday morning, the average ticket price on the secondary market for the Colts home playoff game is $208.36, according to TiqIQ, a New York-based secondary market ticket-price aggregator. But there are cheaper seats. The current “get in” price for the game is $75, according to TiqIQ.

The average ticket price on the secondary market has gone up more than $5 in the last 24 hours, but the cheapest seats have gone down $17, according to TiqIQ.

The average is getting a boost by the demand for premium seats for this game. The most expensive seat currently listed for Saturday’s game is in Section Club 139 row 1 for $1,800 and change. The price of the priciest tickets on the secondary market has gone up considerably since Monday, when club seats were selling for $1,650.

Overall the demand for the Colts playoff game tickets on the secondary market isn’t yet as high as it was the last time the team hosted a game in the preliminary round of the playoffs. In 2010, when the Colts hosted the New York Jets, the average price of tickets on the secondary market was $342.90, while the cheapest seats on the secondary market were $172, according to TiqIQ.

Those 2010 prices probably reflected the influx of fans from New York coming to Indy for the game as much as the demand from Colts fans for the tickets. It doesn’t appear throngs of Kansas City fans are as prepared to travel to Indianapolis this weekend to take in the game as was the case with New Yorkers in 2010.

Of the four Wild Card weekend games this year, the Colts have the third most expensive ticket on the secondary market, according to TiqIQ. The other AFC game, pitting the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals is the cheapest. The average price for a ticket on the secondary market for this weekend’s game at Cincy is $136.91, down from $173.60 on Monday. The get in price for that game dropped from $88 on Monday to $59 on Tuesday, according to TiqIQ.

Chargers fans definitely don’t appear to be making the trip across two time zones for the game. That coupled with Cincinnati’s relatively small market is working to keep tickets prices for that game down. It looks like later in the week, fans in Cincinnati might have options to get tickets below face value.

The most expensive playoff ticket this weekend? As of Tuesday, tickets for the New Orleans at Philadelphia game are averaging $349.21 on the secondary market, according to TiqIQ, with the cheapest ticket running $192.

And the demand for tickets to that game are on the rise. The average price of tickets on the secondary market for the Saints-Eagles game is up from $288.86 on Monday.

The other NFC game, featuring San Francisco at Green Bay is the second most expensive ticket for this Wild Card weekend. But the demand for those tickets—at least the remaining ones—appears to be dropping.

The average price of tickets on the secondary market for the 49ers-Packers game on Monday was $283.59, according to TiqIQ, with the cheap seats going for $181. On Tuesday, the average price was $228.32 with the lowest priced tickets going for $147.

From everyone here at The Score, happy holidays and see you next year. And remember, whatever you do, spend that cash Santa gave you. It’s good for the economy.