Many Georgia Tech basketball fans with tickets to the Dec. 31 ACC opener against North Carolina at McCamish Pavilion might be described as motivated sellers.
The average sale price on StubHub for the Tech-Carolina game has dropped 30 percent since Sunday, when the Yellow Jackets football team received an invitation to the TaxSlayer Bowl, which will be played at the same time as the basketball game. The bowl game starts at 11 a.m., while the basketball game starts at noon.
The average sale price on Sunday was $184, then $141 on Monday and $128 Tuesday as of 4 p.m., according to a StubHub spokesman. The fall from the top of the market might have been even more precipitous, as Tech’s bowl berth was announced Sunday around 4:30 p.m., which would have provided plenty of time for the market to deflate before the end of the day.
The cheapest ticket available has dipped slightly, from $74 Monday to $68 Tuesday.
It would seem to reflect a market of Tech fans who are either planning to go to the bowl game in Jacksonville, Fla., or intending to be at home to watch on television, and eager to divest themselves of their basketball tickets. It’s all the more noteworthy given that it’s the first ACC game in coach Josh Pastner’s tenure, and that a visit from the Tar Heels – now ranked No. 7 – is among the more anticipated matchups of the season for Tech fans.
It’s entirely possible that the game, which typically brings out hundreds of UNC fans, could provide a virtual home-court environment for the Tar Heels.
The noon tipoff time was set by the ACC and its television partners in September. Tech and UNC are locked into the noon time slot, according to a conference spokesman.
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