Pacers ticket prices on secondary market baffling

Indianapolis again is proving itself to be a soft market for sports tickets on the secondary market.

Just before this NFL season kicked off, the Indianapolis Colts had the third cheapest ticket prices of all 32 NFL teams on the secondary market, according to national ticket broker Vivid Seats. The median price of a ticket for a Colts game at Lucas Oil Stadium was $113. Six weeks into the season that slumped to $79.

The Indiana Pacers may even be a better illustration of the market’s softness. Unlike the underachieving Colts, the Pacers are beating most hoops prognosticators' expectations.

The blue and gold is sitting at 9-5, which is good for fourth in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. It’s a long way to the end of the 82-game NBA schedule, but if that holds up, the Pacers will have home-court advantage for a first-round playoff series. Not bad for a team that has completely overhauled itself.

With uncertain expectations heading into this NBA season, the Pacers had the 26th—out of 30 teams—most expensive ticket prices on the secondary market, according to Vivid Seats. The median price for a ticket to a Pacers home game on the secondary market was $73 just before the NBA season tipped off.

The Denver Nuggets owned the most expensive tickets on the secondary market with a median price of $237 followed by the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors at $219, according to Vivid Seats.

Not surprisingly, after a record 16-0 start, the median price for Golden State home games has shot up to $332, according to Vivid Seats. That’s good for the top spot in the league.

Inexplicably, the median price for Pacers games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse has dropped to $55, 29th in the league ahead of only the Detroit Pistons at $48.

That drop comes despite the fact that the high-scoring Pacers have won three straight and eight of their last 10.