Now that the long-expected matchup is officially in place for the SEC Championship game – it’ll be Georgia vs. Alabama on Dec. 4 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium – perhaps your next question is: How to get tickets?
According to SEC associate commissioner Herb Vincent, there are 73,279 “sellable stadium seats” for the game, although the announced attendance will be higher because of standing-room-only tickets, media credentials, etc. And all 73,279 seats already are spoken for, meaning many fans still in search of tickets will have to turn to the secondary market, where resale prices are far above the tickets’ original face value.
The SEC’s face-value prices are $305 for club seats and $150 to $250 for non-club seats, Vincent said. But on the secondary market, prices Sunday on several sites ranged from about $500 (plus fees) into the thousands of dollars.
On Ticketmaster, the authorized fan-to-fan ticket marketplace of the SEC Championship game, “verified resellers” were seeking $516 apiece for upper-level end-zone-corner seats, more than $800 for some upper-level sideline seats and as much as $7,588 for lower-level club seats at the 50-yard line. On StubHub, the least expensive ticket was $549 and the most expensive was $7,645. On Vivid Seats, prices started at $502 and reached $6,530.
Secondary-market prices tend to fluctuate frequently, depending on supply and demand.
The Georgia-Alabama matchup was finalized Saturday when the No. 2-ranked Crimson Tide defeated Arkansas 42-35 to clinch the SEC West title. No. 1 Georgia clinched the SEC East on Oct. 30.
Before tickets make their way to the resale market, here’s how the championship game seats are allocated by the SEC:
-- Each of the two participating schools receives 16,300 tickets. Each participant sells most of its allotment to season-ticket holders and donors, based on past contribution levels. Other tickets go to various institutional uses. Some 1,500 tickets in each participant’s allotment are set aside for students at $60 apiece, according to the SEC.
-- The SEC sells 20,000 seats to holders of renewable tickets – that is, tickets that can be renewed for the championship game from season to season regardless of the participating teams. This year, “6,000 unique households” joined the waiting list – a lottery that starts over every year -- for renewable tickets, Vincent said.
-- Some 6,300 tickets are made available for sale to Falcons club-seat personal-seat-license holders. According to the SEC’s contract with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, 1,000 of those tickets are in the lower-level club seats and the rest in unspecified locations.
-- Approximately 6,300 tickets go to SEC sponsors, 5,200 to suite holders and 3,000 to other SEC schools and the conference office, according to Vincent.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
As with all major sporting events, many SEC Championship game tickets find their way to the secondary market for resale. When Georgia and Alabama last met in the event in 2018, the average secondary-market ticket price was $820.
The SEC Championship game will be a sellout for the 26th consecutive year, although the seating capacity for last year’s event was limited to 16,500 because of social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. College football, like other sports, returned to full attendance this year.
The SEC title game has been played in Atlanta annually since 1994. This year’s game will be the fifth at Mercedes-Benz Stadium after 23 at the Georgia Dome.
Game time on Dec. 4 is 4 p.m. All tickets for the game will be digital. Under Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s cashless policy, only credit cards, debit cards and mobile payments will be accepted for concessions and merchandise purchases.
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