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Women’s March Madness ticket prices jump as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese square off
College hoops fans who want to watch the last four women’s teams battle it out in this year’s edition of the March Madness tournament in person may want to brace for sticker shock.
On SeatGeek, the cheapest tickets for the women’s Final Four matchups on April 5 was $674, compared with $611 for the men’s bracket. At Ticketmaster, as of Monday the lowest-priced seats for the women’s and men’s Final Four games were $746 and $693, respectively.
The prices have shot up amid surging demand for tickets in recent days, buoyed by the sparkling on-court performances of Louisiana State University’s Angel Reese and the University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, online ticket brokers said. At some ticket dealers, the price for a women’s tournament seat is now more expensive than for the men’s games.
Clark and Reese squared off for last year’s national championship, which LSU captured, and the two are matched up again in an eagerly anticipated Elite Eight contest Monday night.
“We’re seeing a seismic shift in the world of sports, thanks to athletes like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and others who are captivating audiences with their talent and star power,” Chris Leyden, SeatGeek’s growth marketing director, told CBS MoneyWatch. “This shift is largely driven by the potent brand power these athletes wield, fueling unprecedented demand for this year’s March Madness tournament.”
Clark and Reese are showcasing their talents on the court, but they “are also inspiring a new era of fandom and engagement,” Leyden said.
Viewership in college basketball has climbed in recent years, bolstered mostly by college-educated men who watch on online streaming services. About 22% of internet-using Americans watch NCAA basketball, according to a survey from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan. The survey also found that 7% of respondents watch women’s college basketball, a figure that increased to 9% this month.
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Israel’s bombardment on Beirut escalates as it launches incursion in northern Gaza
An Israeli airstrike hit a mosque in central Gaza and Palestinian officials said at least 19 people were killed early Sunday. Israeli planes also lit up the skyline across the southern suburbs of Beirut, striking what the military said were Hezbollah targets.
The strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.
The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men, while another man was wounded.
In Beirut, the strikes reportedly targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest conflict, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
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