FORT WORTH, Texas — No surprise here: Tickets to the College Football Playoff National Championship between No. 3 TCU and No. 1 Georgia are looking mighty expensive.
"Tickets are not cheap," TCU alum Kathy Thomas said. "[But] I mean, TCU has not been in the National Championship since 1938 -- so we have to go!"
Thomas and her family attended Saturday’s Fiesta Bowl in Arizona, where TCU defeated Michigan 51-45 to earn a bid to play Georgia for the national title on Monday, January 9, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. So why not keep the fun rolling?
"When they were doing the [Fiesta Bowl champions] ceremony, I was looking at flights [to LA] and booking them," said Thomas’ daughter, Kristen, also a TCU alum.
A once-in-a-lifetime sports experience like that, though, will cost TCU fans a pretty penny.
The cheapest deal WFAA found on StubHub for two seats in the nosebleeds were running over $600 apiece after fees as of Monday afternoon. Meanwhile, two VIP lower level seats behind TCU’s bench cost over $10,000 each on StubHub.
Ticketing sites like Ticketmaster and SeatGeek showed similar rates.
"My hope is that this isn’t the last [championship appearance ever for TCU], but I’m not going to take that chance," said TCU grad and season ticket holder Carolyn Mitchell. "I'm going to go now, and I’m going to enjoy the moment and hope that the magic continues. It’s going to be great."
Of course, there's also the matter of just getting to Los Angeles, too. Any remaining seats on Southwest flights leaving Love Field for LAX on Saturday to currently cost around $600.
Getting back could also be tricky: As of Monday afternoon, Southwest was showing zero available return flights from LAX to Love Field on Tuesday, Jan. 10, the day after the title game.
Even the sanctioned route will cost fans: TCU is offering various travel packages to the game that include airfare and access to the official pregame tailgate, but the cheapest packages there start at $1,945 per person.