Syracuse, N.Y. -- Zion Williamson and the Duke Blue Devils are the hottest college basketball ticket in America.

So says Nate Rattner of SeatGeek, one of the secondary ticket market purveyors that matches buyers with sellers for games, concerts and the like.

“On average,” Rattner wrote in an email, “ticket prices have increased by 178 percent -- or nearly triple from their average -- when Duke is the visiting team this season, compared to the home team’s average ticket price.”

For our specific purposes, it costs an average of $182 to buy an SU-Duke ticket on SeatGeek for Saturday’s Game Day matchup in the Carrier Dome. For comparison, home tickets to SU basketball games on the secondary market this season cost an average of $54, Rattner said.

Syracuse is one of two teams (the other was Gonzaga) to beat the Blue Devils this season, albeit with a shortened Duke roster. Saturday’s game is sold out, so unless you’ve got a thoughtful and generous family member willing to part with his or her tickets, the only way to procure seats for that game is through secondary ticket sellers.

Right now, the highest-priced ticket on SeatGeek is located in Section 109, Row AA, directly behind the Duke bench. Those seats are going for $3,464 each. That figure includes various fees. There are two of them, so you can take a friend. SeatGeek’s cheapest ticket to the game costs $45 and is located in the end zone opposite the basketball court (Section 323, Row M).

On StubHub, you can buy two tickets “Courtside East” for a cool $3,418.57 each. That number, too, includes fees. Or, you can pay $8,719.57 each for a different set of “Courtside East” tickets. The lowest-priced StubHub seat will run you $34.20 and will be very, very far from the basketball court (Upper Corner 322).

Tickets for the Duke game are the highest-priced Syracuse basketball tickets of the season on SeatGeek, Rattner said. Georgetown and Boston College, also Saturday games, line up after Duke. The Georgetown resale ticket cost an average of $78.

This weekend’s Duke tickets, as pricey as they seem, do not own the distinction of the most expensive Carrier Dome basketball seats since SeatGeek started tracking such things in 2010. That honor belongs to Duke, circa 2014. The Blue Devils visited the Dome on Feb. 1, 2014 when SU was undefeated and ranked No. 2 nationally. Tickets for that game, Rattner said, resold for an average of $208.

Here’s a rundown of resell ticket prices for Duke-Syracuse in the Dome over the years, according to SeatGeek:

2/1/14: $208 avg. resale price (hottest SU home ticket of all-time)

2/14/15: $130

2/22/17: $122

2/23/19: $182 (second-hottest SU home ticket of all-time)

Duke forward Zion Williamson (1) during a game against Syracuse on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.comDennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com

Duke tops the list of college basketball teams on the resale market this year for obvious reasons: The Blue Devils are one of the nation’s best teams and they feature the college game’s most unique talent in Williamson. Because of that and because Cameron Indoor is so small (capacity 9,314), ticket resellers for Duke home games are getting an average of $264 per seat. Nobody in college basketball beats that figure.

The Carrier Dome is so vast that Duke tickets are likely to be a bit depressed compared to more intimate arenas across the ACC. The average of $182 for Saturday’s game right right now ranks fourth, behind Virginia, Notre Dame and Florida State for a Duke visit. Tickets cost an average of more than $300 each on SeatGeek when Duke played at Virginia.

“We have seen over the years,” Rattner said, “that fans want to see good teams, and I think the quality of team and player(s), along with the stage of the season and potential impact of the game, has the biggest influence on ticket demand (and therefore prices) than many other factors.”

Can’t afford a ticket to the Duke game? You can buy a ticket to Syracuse-Louisville on Wednesday, sit behind one of the baskets and pay $64 per ticket on SeatGeek. Or you can splurge for $146 seats located right at midcourt. The Louisville game doesn’t have the juice of Syracuse-Duke, but it’s every bit as important for the Orange as it makes its 2019 stretch run.

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