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Ticket price for women’s NCAA Final Four skyrockets to more than $2,000

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The popularity of women’s college basketball has pushed the price of resale tickets to the NCAA Final Four tournament north of $2,000 this week, according to Logitix, a technology company that scans prices across multiple platforms.

The college basketball tournament — one of the most wagered on sports events in the nation — is coming to a close this week. In the women’s bracket, Iowa will face the University of Connecticut on Friday while, later that day, the University of South Carolina will take on the University of North Carolina. 

The average price of a ticket sold to the NCAA women’s semifinals was $2,323, while the average sale price for the men’s was $1,001.21, Logitix reported Wednesday. Prices for the women’s tournament have shot up amid surging demand for tickets, buoyed by stellar on-court performances of Louisiana State University’s Angel Reese and the University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

Clark, Reese and other stars are “inspiring a new era of fandom and engagement,” Chris Leyden, SeatGeek’s growth marketing director, told CBS MoneyWatch this week

The higher prices are also partially due to the more limited supply of tickets. Seating capacity at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland where both women’s finals games will be played is 19,423. 

By comparison, the 63,400-seat State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where the men’s games will take place is three times larger. The average ticket price for the men’s semifinals this year is $993.70, compared with $636.43 in 2023, Logitix said. 

Meanwhile, the price for this year’s women’s Final Four games has dwarfed last year’s cost. Including data from sales made a month ago and longer, the average price for the women’s semifinals is $1,131.78, compared with $400.29 for the same period in 2023, the company said. 


Caitlin Clark Helps Set NCAA Viewing Record As WNBA Eyes Rising Star | Game Changers

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Devoted sports fans have been captivated by the women’s tournament this year, as evidenced by record-breaking viewership numbers. About 12.3 million people watched the game earlier this week between LSU and Iowa — the highest viewership in a women’s college basketball game ever. The previous record was 11.8 million viewers in 1983 for the NCAA women’s championship game between the University of Southern California and Louisiana Tech.

Online sports betting platform FanDuel said the LSU-Iowa faceoff was also the most bet-on women’s game ever, either collegiate or professional, CNBC reported.  

Viewership in both men and women’s college basketball has indeed 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.  

—The Associated Press contributed to this report. 



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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say

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The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.

Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.

A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.

Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego. 

According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.

CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge. 

Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.

Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.

“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”

On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.  

Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.

No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.

Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.

The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.

An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.” 

West’s exact position with the school was unclear.   



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