After Spartan losses, ticket market takes a hit

EAST LANSING - With one program in disarray and the other sitting atop conference standings, many observers expect Saturday's football matchup between Michigan State University and the University of Michigan to be a blowout.

But as the rivals' fortunes have moved in opposite directions, fans from both teams are flocking to the online market.

The game of buying and selling tickets, it seems, may be more competitive than whatever happens on the field.

Although ticket scalping remains technically illegal, thousands of seats are available this week on sites such as Craigslist, where people post free ads seeking to buy or sell tickets, or StubHub, which collects a fee on each transaction.

The face value of those tickets ranges from $80 to $150.

Until recently, fans could expect to pay a minimum of about $250 on the secondary market for a decent seat, said Seth Fisher, associate editor of the popular Wolverines fan site MGoBlog.

Now that ticket will cost around $130.

Fisher, who writes a regular feature on the secondary market for upcoming Michigan games, said prices didn't plummet until after the Spartans' loss to Northwestern — the fourth in what is now a five-game losing streak.

"Sometimes you don't feel the effects right away but you can tell it's going to come, because each loss is kind of a kick to the fan groin," he said.

As with any market, Fisher said, a variety of factors play into the price of tickets: location, time, weather, opponent and success on the field.

But because the market ends abruptly when the game starts, or perhaps a few minutes after kickoff, price volatility increases in the days leading up to a game.

"Once the weather report comes in it's like watching corn markets," he said. "The more rain and the crappier the weather, people... are going to put their tickets on sale."

"I always say wait until the end because the market's going to improve for a buyer," he said. " And for a seller I always say try to sell early in the season because losses really knock down the value."

Hannah McKone, like many Spartan fans, had high hopes for a matchup predicted to feature two highly-ranked teams.

She paid $580 for a pair of tickets through SeatGeek before the Spartans' losing streak began, and this week hoped to sell them for about $300 on Craigslist.

The tickets were supposed to be a wedding gift for her husband, McKone said, but then he was accepted into the Michigan State Police Academy.

"What he's going through is pretty rigorous so when he gets home on the weekends I think he would just kind of prefer to watch from the couch," she said. "But if I don't get some money back I'm dragging him with me."

Penny Cook estimates she and her husband have been season ticket holders for 25 years.

The recently-retired couple has a boat in Florida, however, and with the Michigan winter quickly approaching, warm waters beckon.

"My original plan was to go to the game," she said. "Then we got to thinking that we want to be in Florida a little earlier if possible, and then the team started going into the proverbial toilet.

"I thought, what the heck. If I can just break even on the tickets I'll sell them and then we'll leave a little early."

Cook posted an ad on Craigslist, but said most of the offers have been "ridiculous" so she'll probably end up going to the game.

"That's kind of the way I feel about these tickets," she said. "I'd rather flush them down the toilet than take that kind of a beating."

Fisher said fans can pay as little as $5 for a ticket to some games if they wait until kickoff, but for a rivalry game such as this weekend's matchup, the floor is about $75.

For those who want a ticket in hand before heading to the game, he predicts the online market will bottom out around $120 on Friday.

The second-ranked Wolverines enter the weekend undefeated, and Michigan fans are hoping for their first victory in East Lansing since 2007.

But no matter how many MSU fans end up selling their tickets, Fisher said it's unlikely Michigan will "take over" Spartan Stadium during Saturday's game because the rivalry is too strong.

"I don't see us being more than 20% to 30% (of the crowd)," Fisher said. "There are going to be a lot more Michigan fans than normal but I don't think it's going to be a takeover.

“Now if we're up by 70 points in the fourth quarter, there won't be a lot of Spartans left in the building,” he said. “They're not going to stick around to hear us chanting 'little brother.'”

Contact Christopher Haxel at 517-377-1261 or chaxel@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisHaxel.

The rivalry

Saturday's game will be the 109th in a rivalry that began in 1898. (The teams have  not played each other every year.) Here are results back to 2007, the last time the Wolverines won a game at Spartan Stadium.

2007, Wolverines win 28–24 at Spartan Stadium, their sixth-straight victory in the rivalry.

2008, The Spartans beat the Wolverines at the Big House, 35–21.

2009, The Spartans win 26-20 at home in overtime.

2010, The Spartans are again victorious in Ann Arbor, 34-17.

2011, The Spartans win 28-14 at home.

2012, The Wolverines win 12-10 at the Big House.

2013, The Spartans 29-6 in East Lansing.

2014, The Spartans win 35-11 in East Lansing for the second year in a row.

2015, The Spartans block a punt to score a breath-taking final touchdown that ends the game 27-23, stunning the Wolverines at home.

Source: LSJ research