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Virginia begins its men's basketball season next Friday, November 14th, on the road at James Madison University. The game will be played in the JMU Convocation Center (capacity 7,612), and for obvious reasons it's a hot ticket for both Hoos and Dukes fans.
However, JMU has only single-game made tickets available to "season ticket holders and Duke club members," leading to some strange effects on the market. Tickets on StubHub range from $165 to $335 dollars, as first pointed out to me by @WahooBasketball.
Here are the cheapest available tickets on the secondary market - (Section 218, the outlier going for ONLY $166.89 is tucked in the corner):
This is obviously insanity. Thankfully, buying these is not necessary, as three other options exist if you can't wait two more days to see the Hoos in person before they return to JPJ:
For $158, or about 60% of the Stubhub "market" price, you can buy a season ticket 3 rows back from center court or there are upper deck seats for $88. This makes the StubHub prices inefficient, to say the least:
2) Join the "Duke Club"
I called JMU's ticket office and was told that only with a $50 pledge can you can qualify to be at the membership level to buy a UVA single-game ticket for $30. You also get a free Dukes decal!
3) Wait to see if extras go on sale
There are currently a decent amount of unsold seats in JMU's Convention Center, as you can see by scrolling through the available season tickets. I doubt that the AD will let these seats go unsold, so they'd potentially open up the process the day of the game.
Or, the most reasonable option.... 4) Screw JMU, watch on their free streaming service (the game is not televised), go to JPJ to see UVA vs. Norfolk State on Sunday the 16th.