If you’re thinking of attending the Super Bowl on Sunday by grabbing yourself a few tickets through a ticket reseller like StubHub, RazorGator, TicketsNow or any other reseller you better be prepared to pay the highest resale prices yet.
On StubHub, a subsidiary of Ebay, tickets are ranging from $2,450 to $19,446. The average price is $4,300 on tickets originally priced by the NFL at $700 and $900.
“It appears our face value is underpriced based on demand and what people are willing to pay,” said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, who seems resigned to the fact that the league is mostly powerless to stop the profitable turnover of tickets.
Several Patriots fans are doing what ever they can to get to the game. Not only is the team trying for it’s fourth title in seven years but there’s also that whole unbeaten season angle.
One Patriots fan paid $29,385 to reseller RazorGator for a package that includes three hotel nights and breakfasts, transportation to and from the game, a gift package, and tickets for him and his two sons.
Tickets on the RazorGator site are going for between $2,700 and $7,200.
One Giants fan, who is originally from Manhattan and now lives in Denver, spent $40,000 for a package through RazorGator’s Prime Sports. It includes four tickets on the 50-yard line, hotel stays and pre- and post-game parties to take his three sons, who are 9, 11 and 14.
“I see it as a once in a lifetime event, so the stars aligned and we’re off,” he said. “It’s not something I’m going to do on a regular basis.”
His wife and 16-year-old daughter, who is uninterested in football, are throwing a Super Bowl party at home while the boys go to Phoenix. They have, at least, agreed to wear their jerseys in support of the family team.
Ticket prices are expected to drop the closer to kickoff you get. Local scalper in Glendale will be able to try to sell seats in one controlled area just north of the stadium.
So where do all these tickets come from? Well the Patriots and Giants each get 17.5% of the seats. The league controls 25.2%, the Arizona Cardinals being the host team get 5% and each of the other 29 teams get 1.2%.Â
NFL coaches, players and team officials are reminded that they are not allowed to resell their seats. If they do they face fines by the league.
The 17.5% alotted to the participating teams is not a lot, it’s about 12,000 tickets or so that go to players, coaches, sponsors and team employees. What’s left gets sold to season ticket holders who were selected in a lottery. In the Patriots case that’s about 5,000 seats for the season ticket holders and many get left out because after they don’t get selected in the lottery they don’t have the money to get tickets from a reseller.Â
Make sure if you do decide to try to buy tickets at this time that you beware of scams.
