How the Price of a Super Bowl Ticket Has Skyrocketed
For the majority of fervent fans, the cost of attending a Super Bowl is prohibitive. After all, the average ticket to the upcoming Super Bowl LVII cost $8,837 as of Feb. 7 – five days before the game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, TicketIQ reported.
Learn: How Rich Are These Big-Name NASCAR Drivers?
More: 25 Sneaky Car Dealership Tricks To Avoid at All Costs
A ticket to the biggest annual event in American sports and television was not always exclusive only to the richest people and companies in the world. In fact, ticket prices didn’t really start getting outrageous until 10 years or so ago.
The Super Bowl Was a Treat, Then a Luxury, Now an Extravagance
A ticket to the first Super Bowl, played Jan. 15, 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum averaged $12, according to a USA Today report. The face-value price was the same in 1969 to see the game at the Orange Bowl in Miami. When adjusted for inflation, that’s $130 in today’s money. Ten years later, the average ticket cost $30, or $130 today.
By 1989, the average cost had risen to $100 ($245 today), and in 1999, the price soared to $325 ($587 now).
The average ticket price hit $1,000 in 2009 — again, adjusted for inflation in today’s dollars, that’s $1,405 — and in 2019, the average face-value ticket reached $2,557.
Who knows what 2029 will bring.
Of course, face-value tickets are impossible for the typical fan to buy. According to DraftKings Nation, the Super Bowl teams share 35% of the allotted tickets and distribute them to players and season-ticket holders. The host team receives 5%, the other 29 teams share 34.8% and the NFL keeps the rest for sale primarily to partners, sponsors and media.
The team shares go to season ticket-holders and VIPs. Since face-value tickets don’t hit the open market, that means the only way for a fan to buy one is on the secondary market.
Take Our Poll: Do You Have a Second Job or Backup Plan in Case You Are Laid Off?
Six-Figure Super Bowl Tickets?
Pricing can be volatile on the secondary market; nearly the same ticket can sell for different prices on two sales platforms. And when you buy the ticket impacts the cost, too. Sellers often will drop the price closer to game day to motivate a buyer to step forward.
Where you sit changes things, too. Upper sideline tickets are a far cry from sitting on the 50-yard line. On Feb. 7, TicketIQ listed seats in the upper-deck of State Farm Stadium, located even with the corner of the end zone, for $5,308 each. On the same day, a seller was offering four lower-level seats in the front row, behind the Kansas City Chiefs’ bench at the 30-yard line, for $41,523 each.
$85K To See Brady’s Last Hurrah
In late January 2021, the Buccaneers were gearing up to take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, where the Bucs would become the first team in history to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium. The Rams became the second in 2022.
Tampa was the site of Tom Brady’s final Super Bowl, and demand for tickets was at an all-time high. On Jan. 25, 2021, a local ABC affiliate reported that one ticket had sold for $84,838, calling it “the most expensive Super Bowl ticket yet.” The exorbitant prices undoubtedly were due to a high demand mixed with a limited capacity of 25,000 people to maintain social distancing during the pandemic.
Brady retired on Feb. 1, 2023, ending a 23-year career that saw him play in 10 Super Bowls and win seven. That’s more than any one NFL franchise.
The Million-Dollar Super Bowl Suite
Local businesses usually purchase most of the premium seating in any given NFL stadium in advance. But, according to Sportico, when a stadium hosts the Super Bowl, those local businesses are priced out as the biggest corporations and highest net worth individuals in the world compete for limited space in luxury boxes.
In 2021, the NFL made history when it sold its first $1 million suite for that Super Bowl in Tampa. It crushed the previous record from the 2020 Super Bowl in Miami.
It’s not clear how much the suites at State Farm Stadium cost the original buyer for this year’s game, but like tickets, suites can be purchased on the resale market. The Suite Experience Group, which puts suite holders together with prospective buyers, posted this to its website: “Super Bowl LVII luxury suites are in high demand and will cost between $1,500,000 to $2,000,000.”
At least they come with “premium food and beverages.”
More From GOBankingRates
Andrew Lisa contributed to the reporting for this article.
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How the Price of a Super Bowl Ticket Has Skyrocketed
