Prepare to pay steep price for Albany Cup ticket

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

UAlbany basketball coach Will Brown, left, and Siena basketball coach Jimmy Patsos help light the Christmas tree at Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland on Tuesday. Ed Swyer, center, pushes the button. Guilderland Town Supervisor Peter Barber is between Bro...

A few seats are still available for what UAlbany men’s basketball coach Will Brown has called “the hottest ticket in town.”

But be prepared: It’s also one of the priciest seats in town.

Tickets for the University at Albany-Siena men’s basketball game at 7 p.m. Sunday — the first Albany Cup game ever to be played at SEFCU Arena — are going for $60 for chairback seats and $40 for reserved bleacher seating.

By comparison, tickets for Wednesday’s UAlbany home game against Holy Cross will range from $10 to $18.

Tickets for the Albany Cup game last year at Times Union Center cost $14 to $30. The game was part of a handful of marquee Siena home contests with elevated prices; Siena tickets normally cost $10.50 to $20.64 last season.

Charlie Voelker, UAlbany’s associate athletic director of external affairs, said Tuesday afternoon that about 155 of only the $40 tickets remain, and a sellout of the 4,538 seat SEFCU Arena is assured. “There may be a possibility that standing-room tickets will be made available,” he added.

He said up to 250 standing-room-only tickets could open up.

The relatively small size of SEFCU compared to Times Union Center has created controversy. Siena’s 15,000-seat home arena in downtown Albany has been the home of the crosstown rivalry game since its Division I inception in 2001, and Siena backers have argued against playing at SEFCU because of fear some fans could be shut out.

Voelker defended the ticket prices, noting that the arena is about to be sold out — meaning there is still a demand — yet fans can still get tickets if they hurry. Students get in free, and are guaranteed a seat to the men’s game if they attend the women’s game.

Another difference to this year’s Albany Cup: The women’s game will be played at a non-adjacent time — 3 p.m. — and require a separate ticket. In the past, the men’s and women’s games were played as doubleheaders. Tickets for the women’s game are $7.

Voelker said the move was not meant to gouge fans, noting the low ticket price, but rather to allow more access.

“It was more of a logistics thing, to give more people an opportunity to see the women’s game,” he said. “It was to get the most available eyeballs we possibly can.”

Both the men’s and women’s games will be televised on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel 50/323.