NCAA tickets sold out at UD Arena, but options still available

Credit: Chris Stewart

Credit: Chris Stewart

University of Dayton Arena has sold out its allotment of tickets for first-, second- and third-round NCAA men’s basketball tournament games this week, but options remain for fans to acquire seats.

The First Four round tickets, for games played Tuesday and Wednesday, have been sold out for months. The final several hundred tickets for the second- and third-round games Friday and Sunday sold out after the tournament field was announced Sunday evening, said Adam Tschuor, director of ticketing at the University of Dayton.

The NCAA, through its ticketing site at ncaa.com/tickets, has tickets available in hospitality packages that are more expensive, Tschuor said. The organization also has its own ticket exchange for buying and selling tournament tickets on its ticketing site.

Buyers and sellers can also turn to the secondary ticket market, headlined by the ticket exchange website StubHub.com, for finding tickets even though the games are sold out.

UD Arena will host 10 tournament games from Tuesday through Sunday with teams including Ohio State, Indiana and Notre Dame. The number of marquee teams drove up demand for the remaining tickets Sunday night.

The sales push is part of the region's effort to keep the First Four round — the four games in two days that comprise the tournament's first round — in Dayton long-term. The Local Organizing Committee aided a sell out of the First Four games by encouraging businesses and sponsors to buy chunks of tickets.

The university and the LOC have asked those businesses that purchased tickets to ensure they are available to employees or others who will go to the games to ensure strong attendance. Tschuor said Monday afternoon that because many businesses were involved in the ticket-buying, the school was confident about strong attendance on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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