Duke Vs. UNC Coach K's Last Game At Cameron Indoor Stadium: A Pair Of Tickets Sold For $39,000
After 42 seasons, Mike Krzyzewski will say goodbye to Duke University with the 2021-2022 his last season leading the Blue Devils.
Saturday’s matchup against rival North Carolina will mark Coach K’s last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, home of the Blue Devils.
The Matchup: The Duke Blue Devils are 26-4 on the season and hold a 16-3 record in the ACC.
North Carolina holds a 22-8 record overall and a 14-5 record in the ACC.
Duke is averaging 80.3 points per game, ranked 12th in NCAA Division 1. The team ranks 11th in assists (17.3) and 55th in rebounds (38.6).
North Carolina averages 78.1 points per game and ranks 35th in the country in rebounds with 39.7 per game.
The team met earlier this season in a game that Duke won 87-67 at North Carolina. In the matchup, Duke out rebounded North Carolina 40-24.
Duke is on a seven game win streak and North Carolina enters on a four game win streak.
Krzyzewski holds a 50-46 record against North Carolina.
The game will be aired at 6 p.m. EST on ESPN, a unit of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS).
Expensive Seats: Coach K’s first home game was Nov. 29, 1980 when the ticket prices were $7. To get into Saturday night’s Cameron Indoor finale, Duke fans will have to shell out a lot more.
The game could be the most expensive regular season ticket price in sports history. Earlier this week, the average pair of tickets were going for over $5,000, or around $2,500 each.
Vivid Seats (NASDAQ:SEAT) has its cheapest seat for Saturday’s game available at $4,313. The site has seats priced all the way up to $17,000 each as of Friday.
One pair of tickets for Saturday’s game sold for $39,000 according to Darren Rovell.
SeatGeek, which is going public via SPAC merger with RedBall Acquisition Corp (NYSE:RBAC) has four tickets listed Saturday ranging in price from $6,026 to $13,371 each.
The records in other sports pale in comparison, with MLB seeing its highest average $1,400 at the Field of Dreams game. Kobe Bryant’s NBA finale in 2016 came at an average of $1,400 per ticket. The NFL also comes in around the $1,400 mark when Tom Brady returned to play at New England as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Helping make the Duke tickets so expensive is the limited supply. Cameron Indoor Stadium holds a capacity of 9,300, which is significantly lower than the four major sports.
The record ticket price average for the Duke/North Carolina rivalry is $2,302 in 2019 when Zion Williamson played for Duke and the two teams were ranked #1 (Duke) and #3 (North Carolina) in the polls.
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Betting Odds: Duke comes into the matchup favored to win by 11 points by DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG).
Duke’s only four losses on the season have come in close games. The team lost to Ohio State by 5 in their only non-conference loss. The team’s other loses were by one point to Florida State, one point to Virginia and two points to Miami. Duke lost four games by a combined nine points.
It’s hard to imagine that Duke loses in Coach K’s last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. This is also a rivalry game for the two teams, and 11 points is a lot to lay in this historic rivalry.
DraftKings is offering player props, which could be the place for bettors to target. Pablo Banchero leads Duke with an average of 16.9 points per game. The over/under for Saturday is 16.5 at odds of -120.
Wendelll Moore Jr. averages 13.2 points per game and DraftKings has the over/under at 11.5 (-125).
For North Carolina, Brady Manek is the third leading scorer with 14.2 points per game. Manek had 21 in the last game against Duke and comes into Saturday with an over/under of 15.5 (-125).
RJ Davis is the fourth leading scorer on North Carolina, averaging 13.3 points per game and had 11 in the last matchup. The over/under of 12.5 is offered at odds of +100.
Duke held a significant rebound margin in the last matchup. Banchero had 10 boards in the last game against North Carolina and averages 7.8 a contest. The over/under of 7.5 is offered at +110.
Moore averages 5.5 rebound per game, which is right where DraftKings has the over/under with odds of +115.
There isn't much offered for boosted odds for the highly anticipated game Saturday. FanDuel, which is owned by Flutter Entertainment (OTC:PDYPY), is offering a combo bet of Duke and Baylor both winning by 8 points or more paying +160 (was +115). Baylor is favored by 12.5 against Iowa State.
Photo: Courtesy of Hayden Schiff on Flickr