No Cheap Seats: 10 Most Expensive Sporting Events Of All-Time

Attending professional sporting events is often a great deal of fun, but it’s also a very expensive hobby – even for casual fans. However, those hardcore sports fanatics who want to attend postseason or other extremely high-profile events can expect to pay more than some people make in a week – or in some cases – an entire year.

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To get a feel for just how insane tickets prices have gotten in recent years, we are going to take at the ten most expensive sporting events to have ever occurred. Some may be fairly obvious, while others will certainly come as a surprise to many.

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10 2013 World Series (The Boston Red Sox Vs St. Louis Cardinals)

Those who are Boston Red Sox fans, or simply Major League Baseball enthusiasts, will most certainly remember the 2013 World Series. The series pitted the Sox against the National League Champion St.Louis Cardinals. Boston would go on to win the Series at home in game 6. It would be the first time the team captured a world championship on home soil since 1918.

All of the games series were pricey. However, Red Sox fans really wanted to see their team win it all at home and ended up paying a pretty penny, for what would end up being the final game. Espn reported that tickets for game six were going for an average of $2,056, with some of the better seats selling for $12,000 each.

9 2019 NBA Finals (Toronto Raptors Vs Golden State)

The 2019 NBA Finals was memorable for several different reasons. It was the first time the Raptors won it all and the only time a Finals game has ever played outside of the United States. Moreover, it also featured the last game (game 6) that the Golden State Warriors would ever play at their longtime home, Oracle Arena.

The combination of seeing the NBA Finals and the last game at Oracle drove ticket prices through the roof. It was reported that a pair of courtside seats for game 6 went for a whopping $138,574. Those who snagged cheap seats still ended up paying around $679 apiece.

8 Floyd Mayweather Jr Vs Manny Pacquiao (2015)

The bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao was billed as the “Fight of the Century.” For years, boxing fans had wanted to see these two legends go head-to-head. While the fight itself didn’t really live up to the hype, it still sold out in less than 60 seconds.

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The sell out caused prices on the secondary ticket market to soar. According to GQ, there were tickets going for $10,973 and these weren’t even ringside. In order to land the best seats in the house, one could expect to pay an eye-popping $75,000 to see the most anticipated fight in recent memory.

7 2013 PGA Masters Tournament

The 2013 Masters Tournament took place in Augusta, Georgia. In the end, it was Australia’s Adam Scott who would end up victorious, afer beating out Angel Cabrera in a sudden-death playoff. In doing so, he would became the first Aussie to win the Masters. While Scott stole the headlines, it was fans desire to see stars like Tiger Woods up close and personal that made the event such a hot ticket.

Golf tickets at the PGA level don’t come cheap, especially for an event this prestigious. The price for a four-day pass to watch Woods and other top golfers was said to be $4,486.

6 Wimbledon 2013 (Andy Murray Vs Novak Djokovic)

The 2013 Wimbledon Men’s Finals featured Great Brittan’s Andy Murray taking on Novak Djokovic in a highly anticipated contest. It should be noted, that prior to the event, 1936 was the last time a British man had won a Grand Slam singles tournament. Murray would go on to defeated Djokovic and make history. Leading up to the event, his countrymen were scouring the secondary market to see one of their own potentially win it all on home soil.

Tickets were extremely hard to come by, and those who found them had to pay a small fortune. Some tickets were reportedly going for as high as $65,000 (USD).

5 2014 World Cup Finals (Germany Vs Argentina)

The World Cup is an event that often generates a massive global audience as was the case back in 2014. That year, the event was held in Brazil and featured a highly anticipated finals match between Germany and Argentian’s national team. Germany would end up winning it all, and those in attendance paid a good deal of money to witness it.

Despite the fact that scalping is illegal in Brazil, due in part to online outlets, there was still pleny of tickets on the secondary market that were going for big bucks. CNN claimed that a single ticket was going from anywhere between $5,000 to $20,000.

4  2016 World Series (The Chicago Cubs Vs The Cleveland Indians)

This World Series featured the two teams with the longest championship droughts in Major League Baseball. It had been a combined 174 years since either the Cubs or the Indians had won the World Series. In the end, it would be Chicago who captured their first title sine 1908. Of course, there were plenty of Cubs fans who were willing to shell out a lot of cash to see their team finally win it all.

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Reports indicated that the average price on the secondary market to attend one of these games was around $2,249. There were even a few fans the paid an astounding $1.17 million to see the Cubs end their 108-year championship drought from the best seats in the house.

3 2017 NBA Finals (Cleveland Cavaliers Vs Golden State Warriors)

For the third consecutive year, the Golden State Warriors faced LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaler in the NBA Finals. This time, it was the Warriors who would avenge last years series loss and become the 2016-17 world champs. The fact that fans had already seen these teams play for the championship two years in a row, certainly didn’t adversely affect tickets sales.

The secondary market was full of high-priced tickets throughout the five-game series. However, fans who attended the final contest paid a hefty price to do so. Based on information provided by Yahoo! Finance, the top-tier tickets for game five were going for as much as $133,000.

2 2010 NBA Finals (Los Angles Lakers Vs  Boston Celtics)

The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics have had one of the NBA’s longest and most heat rivalries. Back in 2010, the two teams faced off in the NBA Finals, in a very memorable series. It would take seven games to decide the series, but in the end, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers would end up taking home the trophy.

Both fanbases were dying to get their hands on tickets – this was especially true for the seventh and final game. Those who were fortunate enough to land courtside seats paid upwards of six figures. The highest-priced tickets were said to have sold for $115,000.

1 Floyd Mayweather Jr Vs Conor McGregor (2017)

Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Conor McGregor has called the “Money Fight” and lived up to its nickname. The bout featured the undefeated Maywaether taking on MMA legend Conor McGregor. This was McGregor’s first pro boxing bout and as a result the contest was scoffed at by most boxing insiders. However, there was a ton of intrest from sports fans. Though McGregor held his own early, he would end up losing the contest via TKO in round ten.

Those in attendance to watch this crossover contest paid top dollar to see it live. In fact, websites were reportedly selling tickets for as high as $157,700.

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