It’s concerning how expensive Ohio State football tickets have gotten, and relief isn’t coming anytime soon.
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The cost of everything continues to rise. While this isn’t breaking news, it is always tough to stomach. Attending an Ohio State football for just one person is expensive enough, I don’t even want to imagine what it would be like for a family of four to attend a Buckeye football game against even just a somewhat decent opponent.
Unfortunately it’s impossible to see the price of Ohio State football tickets doing anything but increasing in the future.
Going to an Ohio State football game shouldn’t be as easy as going to a Miami Hurricanes football game, where you can just show up a couple minutes before a game, plunk down a couple bucks and pretty much get a whole row to yourself just a couple rows from the field.
Going to an Ohio State football game also shouldn’t require taking out a second mortgage on your home. Even though I’m overexaggerating by making those two points, they are closer to reality than we would all like to admit.
The Ohio State athletic department has a tough job when it comes to the price of football tickets. To try and keep them affordable to make sure they are appealing to as many fans as possible, while also trying to maximize profits because expenses are even more out of control now.
Since football is the major breadwinner for the athletic department, Ohio State has to squeeze as much as they can out of every home game to help fund all the other varsity sports at the university. Things are even tougher now because there is also NIL and upgrades that need to be done to Ohio Stadium, which is over 100 years old.
We have already seen a few attempts at adding revenue streams inside Ohio Stadium. Last year the 1922 Club was announced, which will give members a premier gameday destination inside Ohio Stadium. Recently new field level suites in the south end zone were announced, which will force the Ohio State Marching Band to relocate to the north end zone area.
I haven’t seen how much tickets in the new south end zone section will be when they are available starting with the 2026 season, but I imagine they aren’t going to come cheap. “Premium” tickets often are tagged with a dollar amount that includes at least four digits.
Back in 2021 I took my mom, step-dad, and friend of mine to the Tulsa game. Since it was my mom and step-dad’s first Buckeye game I didn’t want to skimp on tickets since I was hoping it would be memorable. I ended up purchasing some B Deck tickets in the north end zone and four tickets ended up being around $200 each after ticket fees, taxes, and all those other surcharges we have to deal with these days. That was only for the Tulsa game, which had one of the lowest crowd turnouts at an Ohio State game in the last 50 years.
By comparison, in 2022 I bought two tickets for a Red Sox/Yankees game in the sixth row in right field on a Saturday night in July for about the same amount per ticket. Baseball’s most historic rivalry shouldn’t cost as much as a game where Ohio State hosts Tulsa.
In a perfect world all tickets would be like when I went to a Minnesota Twins game on a Friday night in August 2023, where we sat in “The Dock” which was a section that was a little overhang in right field. Tickets in that section were $40 AND you got a t-shirt! If you wanted to pay $40 to watch an Ohio State football game they’d probably make you sit on top of Morrill Tower.
Photo by Jeff Dean/Getty Images
Earlier this year I went to the Stadium Series game at Ohio Stadium where the Columbus Blue Jackets hosted the Detroit Red Wings. I’m a quarter-season ticket holder for the Blue Jackets, but since this event was at Ohio Stadium the Blue Jackets didn’t really have much to do with ticketing since it was at an Ohio State facility.
Even for C Deck tickets, I paid over $100 each when I purchased them months in advance. Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely worth it since it was a once in a lifetime event, it was just crazy to me to be paying that much to sit in C Deck.
These days it is easier to pass on attending Ohio State football games since the viewing experience is so much better at home. No lines for the bathroom, food and drinks that aren’t ridiculously priced, and I can flip around to other games during commercial breaks and halftime.
I do have a friend that has season tickets who took me to the Indiana game in 2022 and Michigan State game in 2023, and I’ve taken him to Blue Jackets games in those years as a thank you. It’s obvious I’m making out better on the deal since tickets to the Blue Jackets are only a fraction of what he is likely spending for his Ohio State season tickets.
I’m sure I sound like a huge cheapskate but since I’ll soon be turning 40 I’m fully embracing the “get off my lawn” stage of life. Give me a night game and I’d gladly pay hundreds of dollars to see Texas or Penn State this year in Columbus. Unfortunately those are the prices that we’ll likely see for a late afternoon game against Grambling or a night game against Ohio.
When you see those fans that are paying to see the premium games, it’s no wonder why the atmosphere is lacking at Ohio Stadium these days. The crowd consists of more and more rich people who have no interest in making any noise.
Good luck to athletic director Ross Bjork since you have to try and balance ticket prices to maximize profits while also keeping fans happy. At least he has plenty of experience since previously he had to deal with the oil tycoon boosters at Texas A&M before coming to Ohio State.
Bjork has done some creative things so far but they all benefit the upper class of Buckeye fans. For the common fan like you and I, things are going to get worse before they get better when it comes to accessibility to Ohio State football tickets.