(Bloomberg) -- Demand for tickets to college football's national title game is at an all-time low, as travel costs and match-up fatigue weigh on fans of both Alabama and Clemson.
Prices for tickets to Monday's College Football Playoff title game at the San Francisco 49ers home in Santa Clara, California, have dropped more than 50 percent since last week, according to SeatGeek. The cheapest ticket available Thursday afternoon was $157, while the average resale price was $566.
That's the lowest SeatGeek has seen in the final's five-year history, according to spokesman Chris Leyden. Last year's game, held in Atlanta between Georgia and Alabama, had an average resale price of $2,969 on the preceding Thursday.
This is the fourth time in the last four years that the University of Alabama has faced Clemson University in the playoffs, including two championships in the past three years. Both schools are more than 2,300 miles away from Santa Clara, which isn't a college football hotbed.
That said, like most premier sporting events, the money is in the media rights and slow ticket sales don't mean people won't watch from their couches. Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN is in the middle of a 12-year, $7.3 billion deal to broadcast the playoff. Last year's game was the second most-watched cable event in history.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum, Dan Reichl
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