Summer is just around the corner and what screams nice weather more than concert season. As some of you may or may not know, TiqIQ provides aggregated ticket listing for not only sports, but also concerts & theater. With that said we have decided to give away some $200 in ticket credit to a random entrant who completes the steps in the graphic below. It’s simple to enter, just follow the instructions below & good luck!

And remember, before you enter check out TiqIQ.com for all upcoming concerts in your area.

Official contest rules

Is there anything more exciting in sports then a game 7? One game for the chance to advance or win a championship–very few events live up to the hype like a game 7. The NHL playoffs are considered some of the most intense sporting events around and a game 7 only make them that more crazy.

After four pivotal game 7’s in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, this year, there is the possibility of 3 in the opening round alone (Devils v Panthers pending). With the excitement and energy of these must-win games also comes a heavy price tag. Last year, the average price of the four game 7’s was $302.50, with the Vancouver vs. Chicago series commanding the highest average price at $430 per seat . This season, the price tag for the two already scheduled game 7’s is even higher with an average ticket price of $365.67, 20.88% higher than in 2011. This is mainly driven by the sky-high average ticket price for the Sens @ Rangers game at Madison Square Garden, which is currently $575.

So the next time you think of how cool it would be to see a Game 7 played, remember the effect that decisive match up will have on your wallet. Still, with all the drama involved who could blame a fan for spending the big bucks for such a big game. If you would like to attend any of this week’s game 7’s, click on the ticket link below:

The Stanley Cup playoffs are well underway, so we at TiqIQ wanted to take the temperature of the country and see which team’s tickets are the hottest. To get a better view of things we put together this ticket price heat index graphic.

As you can see above, the dark red, or hottest regions, are found in New York, Vancouver, and Pittsburgh. Rangers fans are paying $361 to see the top seeded Eastern Conference team take on the Senators, while the top seed in the West, the Canucks, are getting an average of $287 per seat for their so far very disappointing 1st round series against the Kings. In Pittsburgh, the fans are forking over $266 to watch their interstate rivalry series with the Flyers. So far the high price of these tickets hasn’t guaranteed a happy day at the rink, as both the Canucks and Penguins dropped their first two games at home, and the Rangers were only able to head to Ottawa with a split.

Unlike those three powerhouses, fans in Los Angeles have gotten the biggest bang for their buck. Kings fans, treated to a surprising game 3 win over the Canucks last night to move to just one game away from knocking off the President’s Trophy winners, are only paying an average of $199 to watch their Kings take the ice at Staples Center. The Kings share the red zone with Washington and Chicago, where the home crowds await pivotal game threes as both series change venues with the two teams splitting the first two games.

On the bottom end of the spectrum, in the yellow zone, are the Panthers, Devils and Red Wings, with tickets for all three teams’ home games selling for under $125.

Besides the teams in the hot zone, there are plenty of deals still available for this year’s Stanley Cup quarterfinal round. If you’d like tickets to any remaining first round game, click on the ticket button below.

It’s April and baseball season is upon us. With the beginning of the season comes the hope of fans that this year will be the year their team puts it all together and wins it all. Opening is the day on the calendar that all fans circle, with the hopes that it is the beginning of something special. With this extraordinary hype, also comes some high ticket prices in some cases.

It should come as no shock to fans in Boston and New York, that the Yankees & Red Sox are 1/2 in terms of highest average price on Opening Day. With high payrolls, comes high expectations, and even higher ticket prices. Rounding out the top 4 highest Opening Day averages is the newly named Miami Marlins and defending World Series Champions, St. Louis Cardinals. Both of which on any other year would be a surprise in terms of top priced openers, but with the christening of a new stadium in Miami and a championship pennant being raised in St. Louis, these prices are probably justified.

Even though expectations and special events helped boost those teams Opening Day ticket prices, they’re teams that play in markets where demand just isn’t there. The teams with the 2 lowest average Opening Day ticket prices are the Mariners & the Astros. Both of these teams are not surprisingly in this position playing in smaller markets and with very low expectations for the 2012 season. The Rays & Indians round out the bottom 4 teams with lowest opening day ticket prices. Back in the late 1990’s the Indians sold out almost every game and with their hot start last year it looked as they maybe turning the corner, but as the season continued the Tribe faded as did their ticket prices. Continued success going forward would be greatly welcomed by those in Cleveland, but maybe not by their wallets. In the meantime, Opening Day in Cleveland is an affordable day for the family. Tampa is a completely different story. The Rays have been perennial contenders the past few seasons. So why the low ticket prices? The market for baseball in Tampa hasn’t grown much with the winning, thus prices have remained low.

Whether you are paying high or low ticket prices this April to see your team open up their 2012 season, remember that with a blank slate comes hope for all. So if you’d like to attend any of the remaining Opening Day games on the MLB schedule, click on the view tickets button below.

If you would like to score some last-minute deals on tickets to tonight’s championship game, click on the tickets button below.

March Madness may usually come down to two powerhouse teams, but the thing that makes it one of the greatest sporting events in the World has always been the Cinderella stories. As Tebowmania and Linsanity reminded us, fans still love an underdog, and this year it’s those stories that are having the biggest affect on ticket prices.

As shown in the chart above, the hottest or most expensive tickets are in the Midwest Regional in St. Louis. Seats for Sweet 16 tickets are currently selling for a whopping $500 apiece, and Elite 8 tickets are selling for $300. Just behind St. Louis is the South regional in Atlanta where tickets for the Sweet 16 are selling for $432 and Elite 8 are selling for $175. What you find in these brackets are this tourney’s Cinderella stories; in the South, it’s10th seed Xavier taking on #3 Baylor, and in the Midwest, #13 Ohio taking on #1 UNC and #11 NC State against #2 Kansas. Prices in these brackets have also seen a major jump in price since the third round wrapped up last weekend, particularly for the Sweet 16 round. In Atlanta, those tickets have gone up 98% this week, and in St. Louis prices have jumped even higher, rising 108%. To get in to either of these Sweet 16 sessions, it’s going to cost fans a minimum of $90 in St. Louis and $175 in Atlanta (the highest for any regional round session).

In the East and West, no team is ranked lower than 7th and there are two #1 vs. #4 match-ups, yet Sweet 16 tickets in those venues are selling for about half as much as those in Atlanta and St. Louis, and along with the lower average prices, tickets in Boston are trending downward, dropping 53% this week, while tickets in Phoenix have gone up just 6%. While the average prices are much lower, the get-in price in Boston and Phoenix are similar to their higher priced counterparts, with both get-in prices just under $100.

While it may strike midnight on all these Cinderellas, their impact on this tournament and its ticket prices is undeniable. If you’d like to see these underdogs, or any of the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 in person, click on the tickets button below.

…Also, for all your NCAA tournament ticket info and buying needs, check out our Tourney Ticket Madness bracket with tickets and pricing for all remaining tournament sessions. And while you’re there, make sure to try out the brand new TiqIQ Connect feature.

For two straight seasons one of the biggest stories in the NBA season has belonged to the New York Knicks. Last year, it was The Melodrama and Carmelo Anthony’s trade to New York after months of rumor and speculation. This year, it’s Linsanity. While the two stories couldn’t be any different–one, a disgruntled superstar forcing a trade; the other, a classic underdog tale— they both have had a significant impact on the Knicks home ticket price average.

As shown above, in the week following the Carmelo trade last season, the average price for Knicks home games jumped 25%, from $204 to $256. This year, Linsanity has had an even bigger impact, raising prices an average of 33%, from $229 to $304. While fans in New York love their superstars, the above comparison clearly shows that they love a great Cinderella story even more.

The Knicks brass are also thrilled at the being back in the center of the basketball universe. The 2012 edition, however, has come at a significant discount to 2011. With his salary of $18 million, the buzz generated by Caremlo ‘s trade cost the Knicks $805,000 for each percentage point of price increase. This compares to just $23,000 for each percentage point increase that Linsanity has driven.

For those looking for score a deal Knicks games the rest of this year, there are only a handful of games left with tickets under $100. If Lin can continue to help the Knicks win, come Spring, the current average of $304 may be as distant a memory as Lin’s spot at the end of the Knicks bench.

Between the Knicks early season struggles and Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony both sidelined, ticket prices for Friday’s game vs. the Lakers took a major hit. The average price for the game fell from $544 in mid-January down to $400 on Tuesday, a drop of over 25%.

That all changed when Jeremy Lin burst onto the scene and Linsanity took over The Garden this week. After three great games by the Harvard grad–and three straight Knicks wins–prices have begun to climb, rising 26% since Tuesday from $407 to $514 (as of 11 AM today).

It’s amazing that a guy who wasn’t even part of Mike D’Antoni’s “plans” now has a bigger effect on ticket prices than the absence of the Knicks two superstars. Lin was sleeping on his brother’s couch a couple weeks ago, and now he’s the biggest show on Broadway.

If you’d like to be there on Friday and take part in the next chapter of Linsanity, click on the view tickets button below.

Super Bowl XLVI lived up to the all hype and then some as the Giants and Patriots faced off in another classic. Four years removed from their 17-14 win in Super Bowl XLII, the Giants once again got the best of Brady and the Pats, this time winning 21-17.

Based on the above chart, fans that waited to buy until the last minute were rewarded with bargains. The get-in price dropped over 56% in the 5 days leading up to XLVI with the average price dropping 32%. At game-time, upper level seats were selling for right around $1,000, which was 56% below the get-in price last year.

For XLV, Steelers and Packer fans alike flocked to Dallas. This year, however, interest was lopsided. In the days leading up to the game, we saw 500% more traffic from the Tri-State area than from Massachusetts. Perhaps it was the shorter drive (12 hrs vs. 15 hrs), or just a case of championship fatigue in Boston (poor Bostonians), but Patriots fans were significantly less interested in the game than Giants fans.

As for the most active buying windows, we saw 61% of tickets sell in the 5 days after teams were set and 27% in the 48 hours before the event. Because so many brokers attend the Super Bowl themselves, last minute logistics were easy to manage.

We’re already looking forward to The Big Easy in 2013, and can’t wait for opening kick-off in September.

Here at TiqIQ we aggregate tickets from all major sellers and then deliver ticket prices data for events, both big and small. There is no bigger event in the world of sports or tickets than the Super Bowl. To commemorate XLVI in Indianapolis this weekend, we decided to crunch not just data on ticket prices, but also data on the other things you need to spend money on to get to the big game. We also unearthed some data from Super Bowls past to see how prices have evolved over time. Enjoy!

For tickets to Super Bowl XLVI, click on the tickets button below and follow us on @TiqIQ for daily updates and deals.