March Madness: St. John's-Duke tickets averaging $621 on secondary market site TickPick
St. John's head coach Rick Pitino looks on during a practice session ahead of the Sweet 16 in the East Regional of the NCAA men's basketball tournament on Thursday in Washington, D.C. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick Smith
The St. John’s-Duke East Regional game in Washington on Friday night continues to be a hot ticket with less than 24 hours until tip-off.
The average priced available ticket as of Thursday evening had jumped to $621, according to the secondary ticket market platform TickPick. It was $601 on Tuesday.
If that holds, the two-game session that also includes the UConn-Michigan State game will go down as the most expensive Sweet 16 ticket on the secondary market in NCAA Tournament history, according to TickPick.
The previous high was last year's South Regional featuring Michigan State vs. Ole Miss and Auburn vs. Michigan at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, which averaged $548.
The fact that St. John’s and UConn are a train ride away from Washington plus the traditionally strong attendance by Duke fans for road games are the biggest factors as to why this session is such a big draw.
TickPick estimates there were about 12,000 resale tickets left, down from 15,000 on Tuesday.
Tickets on the site were listed for as low as $329 and as high as $2,815.
The ranges were similar on the low end on most other resale sites, although the lowest-priced ticket on SeatGeek was $634 with a high of $5,287.
On Ticketmaster, the range was $332.75 to a whopping $9,680 for tickets in the first row of center court at the Capital One Arena.
On Gametime, the range was $308 to $5,274.
On StubHub, ticket prices ranged from $308 to $2,875.
The winners of Friday’s game advance to Sunday’s Elite 8 for a chance to go to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
