It appears college football fans are feeling the effects of the bad economy, but don't count on getting cheap tickets to Thursday night's national championship game between the Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners.
Hundreds of tickets remain available through online brokers for the Bowl Championship Series title game in Miami, with prices ranging from $578 to $3,685 on three Web sites surveyed this afternoon.
The average price for 2009 BCS title game tickets that RazorGator.com sold through Tuesday was $870, compared with an average of $1,415 for tickets to the 2008 BCS title game between the LSU Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes.
The lowest price for this year's game was $105 and the highest $3,440 on RazorGator.com.
That compares with a low of $650 and a high of $3,909 for the 2008 game in New Orleans.
"The economy is definitely having a suppressive impact on bowl games in general," said Scott Roback, vice president of business development for Los Angeles-based RazorGator.com, which sold tickets for the New Year's night Orange Bowl between Virginia Tech and Cincinnati for as low as $5.
"But certain games, including the BCS title game, have held up better than expected," Roback said. "There has been a surge in interest in the last few weeks, maybe because people are expecting a great offensive game like USC against Texas three years ago."
More than 1,400 tickets were available early this afternoon on RazorGator.com, Ticketmaster.com and StubHub.com.
Savvy sellers have learned to seek bids on the same tickets on multiple sites, asking a range of prices to see what they can get while trying to ensure they can unload their purchases.
In general, prices fall as a game approaches, both for tickets sold online and by individuals selling them outside a stadium.
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