Want to watch Clemson play Ohio State in person? It won’t be easy, or cheap
Only a small number of tickets were made available for the 2021 Sugar Bowl, sending prices on the secondary market into record highs.
The average price for a ticket to the College Football Playoff semifinal game between Ohio State and Clemson is currently $2,251, according to TicketIQ.
Capacity at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome is currently set at about 3,000 fans (or 4% of the normal 74,000 seats) due to COVID-19 regulations in New Orleans.
Each school received about 500 tickets for the Sugar Bowl. Those tickets are going to guests of staff members and players.
“We’re grateful to the Sugar Bowl and College Football Playoff in allowing us the ability for our players and staff to be able to play in front of their families,” Clemson associate athletic director for strategic communications Jeff Kallin told The State. “It’s extremely important during this process that their families are able to see them play, as we know how hard they’ve worked to be able to play on this stage.”
As for the secondary market, this is far and away the most expensive Sugar Bowl ticket in the last 10 years. The previous high for an average ticket price in the past decade was for the 2019 Texas-Georgia game at $321, according to TicketIQ.
The get-in price for this year’s game on TicketIQ is about $1,200. The price on StubHub is about the same.
Sugar Bowl director of communications John Sudsbury told The State that tickets that didn’t go to schools were “allocated through contractual obligations.” That includes tickets going to TV networks, sponsors, business partners and early purchasers.
Schools typically receive about 17,500 tickets for playoff games. However, that number was reduced to about 500 this year during the pandemic.
The other semifinal game this season will be played in Arlington, Texas and features No. 1 seed Alabama against No. 4 seed Notre Dame. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California was originally set to be a semifinal matchup, but the game was moved to Arlington because of COVID protocols and fan restrictions in Pasadena.
Alabama is playing in Texas, instead of closer to home in New Orleans, because more fans can attend the game in Arlington.
“The No. 1 (seed) is given the benefit of the doubt. And in this case, we know that there can be 16,000 fans able to watch it in Arlington, and we know that there’s going to be 3,000 fans that are going to be able to be watching the game in New Orleans,” playoff chair Gary Barta said. “We decided that the advantage was for the No. 1 team to have more fans able to watch them play.”
While Clemson did not sell any tickets through IPTAY for the Sugar Bowl, it is possible the university could have tickets for sale if the Tigers advance to the national championship game.
The national title game will be played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on Jan. 11. The Orange Bowl will be played in the same stadium on Jan. 2, and 13,000 fans will be allowed to attend that game. That is expected to be the capacity limit for the CFP title game as well.
With that many seats available, it is expected that the schools participating in the championship game will be allocated a limited number of tickets.
What time is the Clemson vs Ohio State football game?
Here’s the College Football Playoff schedule:
Rose Bowl in Arlington, Texas, No. 1 Alabama (11-0) vs. No. 4 Notre Dame (10-1), 4 p.m. Jan. 1 on ESPN
Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, No. 2 Clemson (10-1) vs. No. 3 Ohio State (6-0), 8 p.m. Jan. 1 on ESPN
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
