Are Vikings-Packers tickets worth $411 apiece?

Minnesotans with Olympics fever can get some satisfaction closer to home in September with two of the three hottest sporting tickets in state history coming to town in September.

The most expensive upcoming event — for now — is the Minnesota Vikings' home opener against the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 18. That's also the first regular-season game at U.S. Bank Stadium. Resale tickets to the sold-out game are selling at an average $411.

Nine days later, the best male golfers from Europe and the U.S. arrive for the Ryder Cup at Chaska's Hazeltine National Golf Club. Tickets for that are selling for around $320.

The key advice to fans from Chris Leyden, an analyst at ticket reseller SeatGeek.com, is to be patient, because ticket prices drop for 90 percent of sporting events as the game approaches.

That was the case for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 2014, the highest-priced ticket in recent Minnesota history. The average listing price a month before the game that July was $842 for a ticket. That dropped to $531 the day before the game.

Those prices topped lots of other big-ticket events, from the Adele concert to the Home Run Derby and Minnesota Wild playoff games.

Leyden also suggested that bargain shoppers be flexible. For the Ryder Cup, he suggested going to the practice rounds, which still give spectators an opportunity to see world-class golfers at a fraction of the cost, especially early in the week.

In contrast, for the start of competition on Friday, those tickets are currently listed for $317. Through Sunday, the prices for those tickets are within $20 of that range.

Leyden said prices have come down about 25 percent in the past month.

"What typically happens is that as we get closer to the game and sellers get nervous that they might not sell their tickets, they tend to lower the prices to make sure the ticket sells, since they would prefer something over nothing," he said.

Comparing prices to the last Ryder Cup in the U.S. in 2012, prices for this fall are still higher. For that event in Medinah, Ill., the average resale for practice rounds on Tuesday was $24 but climbed to $90 for Thursday. Competition rounds on Friday and Saturday were about $300 each and $263 on Sunday.

Leyden said prices for the Minnesota event probably will end up near the numbers for the 2012 event.

Leyden expects those prices to drop as well as the game gets closer.

"Typically, the only things that cause prices to increase close to the game is if it suddenly is more important [such as] playoff implications, has a really in-demand giveaway or some special ceremony is announced at the last minute, which might be possible here since it is the first regular-season game in the new stadium," he said.

The Vikings will play their first preseason game at the new $1.1 billion stadium on Aug. 28 against San Diego, then play host to the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 1.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747