David Sweet • E-mail

As the results rolled in last weekend, fans of Ohio State, UCLA, Georgetown and Florida were thrilled. With Final Four games imminent, they checked the Web to try to procure top seats for what could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience in Atlanta. But once they clicked on ticketing sites, their happiness deflated like a gashed basketball.

At Stubhub, a leading online ticket reseller, a pair of floor seats for the Final Four behind one of the baskets was offered for $12,000 — apiece. At least four dozen other seats, all situated in the lower levels of the Georgia Dome, were priced no lower than $2,500 a ticket. The only silver lining: those seats would have cost more than $5,000 apiece if they had been purchased before the Sweet Sixteen was over.

A look at four of the top sports events in the United States — the NCAA Final Four, the Masters, the Kentucky Derby and the Super Bowl — reveals that the prices for the best tickets to the biggest contests are heading through the roof, sometimes reaching five figures for a few hours of entertainment. The concept of face value is almost a joke, as top-notch seats command prices easily twentyfold above the printed charge. (Premium seats at the Georgia Dome this weekend are $204.)

And for those desiring a few plush extras with their choice seats, the prices are even higher. David Lord, president of Los Angeles-based RazorGator Experiences, which sells packages to high-demand sports events, said the firm’s top hospitality package (center court seats, an exclusive entrance into the Georgia Dome, a chalk talk with coaches and other amenities all included) is fetching $7,000 per seat.

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“The Final Four is becoming one of the biggest events around,” said Lord, whose company is the exclusive hospitality provider for the event. “That kind of tradition attracts corporations. We sell three-year contracts to some companies.”

Companies’ interest, in turn, sends the price of tickets to big sports events soaring.

“They might be investing in multi-million-dollar advertising campaigns and local promotions, and it (a game package where they entertain clients) is the smallest piece of the budget,” Lord said, meaning that price can practically be no object.

It has to be no object for a zealous fan who wants nine days of the ultimate sports experience — the Final Four games in Atlanta, and then a drive to Augusta, Ga., to wander the grounds of the Augusta National Golf Club through Easter. In fact, a Masters badge is a bargain compared to the Final Four. Ten days before the start of the tournament, the top price for a badge (including all practice rounds and the four real rounds of the major) is $5,001. (For some reason, the badge had to be returned to an undisclosed location after the final round on Sunday, perhaps to be sold as memorabilia by Stubhub on the site of its owner, eBay.) One could skip the practice rounds and follow Tiger Woods for the entire four-day tournament for anywhere from $2,000-$3,900.

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Though the Kentucky Derby is more than a month away, ticket resellers are having a field day with the best seats. At StubHub, four seats in Millionaire’s Row VI — situated high above the Churchill Downs track at the finish line — are priced at $6,731 apiece. A little lower down and poised right before the finish line, a table in the Turf Club is selling for more than $5,000 a seat.

Even though these tradition-laden events may seem heftily priced, the granddaddy of them all remains the Super Bowl. Tickets for the 2008 affair in Phoenix, Ariz. are already on sale. The best seats at the futuristic University of Phoenix Stadium are commanding $17,500 apiece at StubHub, even though face value is likely to be less than $800. Beyond the fact they are Main Level Premium (near the 50-yard line) and that the game is slated for Feb. 3 (about 300 days away), no other information is available, which may deter a few buyers. They may decide purchasing a new car is a better use of money than a three-and-a-half hour game between two undetermined teams.

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How have things changed? Michael MacCambridge, author of “America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation,” noted that in the early days of the Super Bowl, the game was something that only fans and sportsmen attended.

“But today, as one of the last truly mass entertainment spectacles in our balkanized popular culture, the event has become all the more important,” he said. “In the minds of many people in American business, a ticket to the game is an emblem not only of success but of significance, importance. Supply is limited, demand is ridiculously high, and so what happens? Ticket prices go way up.”

Bottom line: For fans who want the best seats to premium sports events, either join a Fortune 500 company or take out a bank loan.

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