Pony up big bucks. Conduct the band. The many ways to watch Duke before Coach K retires

So you want to see Duke play basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium this season, the final one that Mike Krzyzewski will be the Blue Devils coach?

Here’s a hint: The best bet is to see a game on the road, particularly in one of the neutral-site games the Blue Devils play in big arenas like Madison Square Garden in New York and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Tickets on the secondary market for those games are in the $100 range, according to Duke’s official partner, VividSeats.com, and the independent secondary market site, StubHub.com.

But, if the goal is to see a game at Duke’s famed, but small, home arena, expect to pay much, much more.

For home games against N.C. State (Jan. 15), Syracuse (Jan. 22) and Virginia (Feb. 7), tickets on the secondary market are already more than $1,000.

The most expensive ticket of the season will no doubt be the final home game of Krzyzewski’s Duke 42-year career when the Blue Devils play rival North Carolina in the regular-season finale March 6. A single ticket for that game is approaching $6,000 on the secondary market.

In August, a Duke basketball experience package including four tickets to the UNC at Duke game plus hotel accommodations fetched $1 million at a charity auction benefiting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research.

If you are still reading this, perhaps you aren’t deterred just yet. In that case, here are the options to consider:

Join the Iron Dukes

Membership in Duke’s athletics booster club, the Iron Dukes, provides priority access to any tickets that become available in the 9,314-seat Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The smallest price point to join is $100. But the more you give, the higher your priority is.

The deadline to join to get access to season tickets was July 22. Just to show what we’re talking about here, the smallest membership level that would get you access to two season tickets is $8,000 for newer members or $7,000 for members who joined prior to the 2016-17 season.

For the right to buy four season tickets, the membership level starts at $20,000.

Absolutely join Duke’s wait list

Even though the deadline is passed to join and buy season tickets, a new membership will still help get access to single-game tickets through Duke’s new wait-list system.

The school announced the wait list plan on Sept. 29. Again, Iron Duke members get first priority to these tickets but if any get through that process, they will be available on a first-come, first-served basis for the general public.

Unlike secondary market websites, these tickets will be at face value. Prices will vary depending upon the location of the seats, which range from standing room only to seats that season-ticket holders have made available.

Fans selected to purchase tickets will be notified anywhere from a month prior to the game to as late as game day.

Conduct the pep band. Seriously.

There is another (legal) way in without purchasing a ticket. Duke auctions off the opportunity to be a guest conductor for the Duke pep band during home games. The winning bidder can bring up to three guests, meaning four people get to watch the game.

The winning bid is selected three weeks prior to the game so you need to plan ahead for this one.

For example, the auction for the Nov. 12 home opener vs. Army West Point ends on Oct. 22. Bidding started at $1,500.

As a note, proceeds from the auctions go to support the band program, not the athletics department.

The bidding for most ACC games starts at $2,500 but there are two notable exceptions. The Virginia game on Feb. 7 starts at $3,500.

The UNC game? It starts at $25,000.

Red hot secondary market

OK, so if going to Cameron with a ticket purchased in advance is what you need, the secondary market is where it’s at.

VividSeats.com is Duke’s official partner for ticket resales. But other sites, such as StubHub, also offer tickets.

Beware of sticker shock, though.

As of Oct. 18, the least expensive ticket for the UNC game is $5,990 on StubHub and $6,329 on VividSeats.com.

Nonconference games are, by comparison, cheaper. Tickets to the Nov. 16 Gardner-Webb game start at $300 on Vivid and $325 on StubHub.

Duke’s first home ACC game, Dec. 22 against Virginia Tech, starts at $591 on Vivid and $650 on StubHub.