Attending the Super Bowl is one of the biggest moments in a sports fan’s life.
Not only do they get to watch their favorite team play a high-stakes game live, but they also get entertainment that could cost them a lot of money outside of the game.
The stakes of a Super Bowl game are also high which only adds to the excitement.
However, you’ll often find that tickets to a Super Bowl game are extremely expensive.
Why Are Super Bowl Tickets So Expensive? (Top 10 Reasons)
The average price of a Super Bowl ticket starts at $3,000 and climbs from there.
Some tickets can even go as high as over $17,000 or even $30,000.
The type of seating that you choose can increase the price considerably.
Even the general area where you choose to sit can impact the price.
Parking fees, halftime shows, operational costs, and just the general demand for Super Bowl tickets all make them expensive to buy.
Here are 10 reasons why Super Bowl tickets are expensive.
1. Ticket Seller
One of the reasons Super Bowl tickets can sometimes be expensive is who you buy the ticket from.
The official NFL ticket seller for the Super Bowl is Ticketmaster.
That said, you can also get tickets from sellers like StubHub and SeatGeek.
Although there are different sellers, prices tend to remain pretty high between each of them.
Still, Ticketmaster tends to have the most expensive prices for their Super Bowl tickets.
If you want to get cheaper tickets, you might want to try a different seller.
One of the reasons Ticketmaster tends to be more expensive is because the NFL uses it as its official ticket seller.
Since it’s an official ticket seller, it makes people trust it more.
They’re not as concerned about buying scam tickets.
That sort of buying confidence is something that they pay extra for.
Ticketmaster knows that people are more willing to spend a few more hundred dollars for peace of mind in knowing that they’re buying a legitimate ticket.
Another reason Ticketmaster tends to be more expensive is that while there’s some competition from other ticket sellers, there’s not that much of a threat.
As a result, they’re able to set the price as reasonably high as they want to.
The fact that they’re the NFL’s official ticket seller also gives them a bit more free reign to list the prices that they want.
Super Bowl tickets are expensive because of the NFL’s affiliation with Ticketmaster.
2. Seating Areas
Like at most football games, and other sporting events, you have different seating options at the Super Bowl.
The type of zone that you get seats in greatly influences how expensive your Super Bowl ticket ends up becoming.
There are several different zones in the stadium.
Depending on which zone you choose to sit in, you can end up either high up or low on the ground.
You might be sitting just behind the end zone, in the corner of the stadium, or on one of the sides.
The closer you are to the action, or the better your view of the field is, the more expensive your ticket is going to be.
For example, if you want to be as close to the action as possible, you want to sit closer to the ground.
Not only do the players look larger, since they’re closer, but you also have an opportunity to sit near the team benches.
While you probably won’t be able to hear what the players are saying to one another, you can watch all their antics.
Another great place to sit, for some parts of the game, is behind the end zone.
When a team starts to head your way, it can be quite thrilling to watch them get closer and closer.
Field goals are another exciting time to be sitting behind the end zone.
Since they offer a more intense, or memorable, experience, you can expect those seating areas to be more expensive.
The higher up you are, the less expensive your tickets become.
While Super Bowl tickets are expensive as a whole, the less attractive the seats are, the slightly cheaper they are.
The reason that ticket prices for seats higher up in the stadium are cheaper is that it’s harder to see the action on the field.
You’ll spend most of your time watching the screens if they’re available.
At that point, you’re basically doing what you’d be doing if you had stayed home.
3. Club Seats
Another reason Super Bowl tickets are expensive is if you buy club seats.
There are two types of seats at the Super Bowl.
You can either buy standard seats or club seats.
Standard seats are general seating areas in the various zones in the stadium.
Club seats are private.
They’re in ideal locations that surround the stadium and give you a pretty close view of the field while also maintaining your privacy.
There are tons of perks that you can receive with club seats, too.
For example, you have your own private restroom.
Considering how many people are there to watch the game, getting your own restroom is a huge perk all on its own.
Since Super Bowl games can last for hours, it also means you never have to worry about missing anything.
You can quickly use the bathroom instead of having to wait in a long line for the public bathroom.
Another benefit of club seating is that you get better choices for food and beverages.
You get your own menu with items that most of the people in the stadium aren’t going to be able to get.
This can make your experience at the Super Bowl even more enjoyable since you’re able to eat good food instead of just finger food.
Your food also comes to you with service.
You’re can call service to your booth at any time.
This also ensures you never miss anything from the game since you don’t have to go wait in line at the concession stand.
Depending on the stadium, some might also offer temperature control, too.
You might be able to turn the heat or the air conditioner on.
Because of these perks, you can expect club seats to be expensive.
These are the seats that celebrities and other officials often get to watch the Super Bowl.
They come at luxury prices.
Super Bowl tickets are extremely expensive if you choose to buy club seats.
4. Parking Prices
There are several expenses to attending the Super Bowl that people don’t realize until they’re there.
One of those is parking.
Sometimes, a ticket will include parking fees.
It lets you pay for parking with your ticket.
If you choose to pay more, you usually get access to a parking area.
This is ideal because parking at the Super Bowl is a nightmare.
There’s never enough parking available for all the visitors, so you usually have to find other ways of parking.
Sometimes you even have to park far away and take a shuttle to the stadium.
Since parking is scarce, the prices for it increase.
That’s because, like in all things in economics, when something is in high demand and short supply, the price goes up.
The area of parking can also increase the price of your ticket.
For example, if the ticket includes parking that’s near the stadium, it’s going to be very expensive.
That’s because that’s one of the best parking spots.
You don’t have to walk far to get into the stadium.
If you want to engage in tailgating before the game, you’re in a great location to do so.
Parking areas furthest from the stadium are a bit cheaper since they’re less ideal.
However, because they’re still within the stadium’s parking lot, they’re still going to make your ticket more expensive.
5. Top-Tier Halftime Shows
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that Super Bowl tickets are expensive is because you’re not just paying to watch the game.
You’re also paying for a condensed concert experience featuring top-tier talent.
The Super Bowl always tries to bring in big names in the music industry.
Part of the allure of the Super Bowl is the halftime show in itself.
Some people even come to watch the Super Bowl for the halftime show, alone.
It makes the ticket expensive because you’re basically attending one of the artist’s concerts on top of seeing a sports game.
If you were to buy a ticket to see Elton John, for example, you expect it to be pretty expensive.
That’s because Elton John is famous and has a reputation for giving incredible live performances.
When you attend a Super Bowl, if Elton John is performing, then you’re getting a “free” concert out of it.
Halftime shows are expensive to pull off, too.
Depending on the artist, they might have quite a light show or firework show planned to go along with their set.
They might have the best dancers give a show-stopping performance while they sing.
Whatever the performance entails, it’s usually huge and expensive.
Covering those costs has to come from somewhere.
It’s usually reflected in the price of your ticket.
While the NFL doesn’t pay performers for their show, they do pay production costs.
The 2021 Super Bowl cost the NFL $10 million in production costs.
To recoup those costs, they add them to the price of your Super Bowl ticket.
Super Bowl tickets are expensive because they feature high-quality entertainment that’s costly to put on during halftime.
6. Staffing Costs
One of the benefits of the Super Bowl for the city that’s hosting it is the creation of jobs.
The Super Bowl creates anywhere from 2,000 to just under 5,000 jobs for the city that’s hosting it.
With those extra jobs comes the need to pay the workers.
Considering the number of temporary employees that become involved with the Super Bowl, the NFL needs a lot of money to pay them all.
Even if each employee is only earning $12 an hour, the sheer number of them is what makes their staffing costs quite high.
Then there are the particular jobs that remain with the Super Bowl year to year.
Executives, for example, who are in charge of planning the Super Bowl or who receive the bids from advertisers need to get their pay, and they will get far more than $12 an hour.
Staffing costs increase operational costs for the NFL.
Depending on how many new jobs they need to fill for the particular event, their operational costs might become even higher.
To cover those costs, the NFL has to generate a good amount of profit.
One of the ways they get that profit is through the sale of Super Bowl tickets.
Another way is merchandise sold at the Super Bowl.
However, the NFL can’t always count on each person to buy merchandise while they’re at the Super Bowl, but they can count on ticket sales.
Since it’s a guaranteed method of profit, they make the prices high to ensure they’re able to cover their operational costs.
7. Annual Event
The Super Bowl occurs once every year.
Once it happens, fans have to wait a whole year for the event to occur again.
Because it doesn’t happen once every month or even just twice a year, it makes the Super Bowl special.
It’s a time when the best two football teams go up against one another to determine who is the champion of that year.
The playoffs are nothing but a tease compared to the big game that happens during the Super Bowl.
Sports fans who love football know how special the Super Bowl is.
Since it’s special to them, they’re more willing to spend more money to attend the annual event.
It’s easier to spend a lot of money on something that happens once a year rather than something that happens more often.
It’s easier to excuse the expense, essentially.
The NFL knows how special the Super Bowl is.
That enables them to set prices through Ticketmaster at high rates.
They know that football fans who love the game are willing to spend a lot of money to attend the Super Bowl.
The fact that it’s a one-time event each year also means that the NFL has to make as much money from it as possible.
The Super Bowl may be costly to put on, but it generates a lot of money for the NFL.
Ticket sales alone, at their cheapest tier, generate $66.5 million for the NFL.
That doesn’t include the money they get from paid sponsorships, merchandise, or other streams of revenue.
Because the NFL knows they can earn a lot of money from ticket sales, they increase the price to make as much as possible, and since the Super Bowl happens once a year, the NFL can get away with having more expensive tickets than in other games.
8. Famous Players Or Teams
There’s no doubt that the NFL has favorites.
Some players never seem to be far from the news.
Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are just two of the names you’ll often hear tossed around in football.
The more passionate the following of a particular player or team, the more expensive a Super Bowl ticket might become.
That’s because the NFL will know that even more people are going to become interested in attending the game.
They want to see these players and teams in real life.
This makes Super Bowl tickets expensive because there’s going to be more demand for them.
Since there’s a set number of people that can attend the game, thanks to the stadium’s seating capacity, not everyone is going to be able to get a ticket.
That creates scarcity which increases the price.
If a big star is playing the game, his fans are going to want to attend to root him on.
The problem with that is that his fans might be worldwide if not just nationwide.
They all want to get seats for the game.
They end up competing with other people wanting to watch the Super Bowl which makes the price go higher and higher.
9. Limited Seating
You can trace most of the reasons behind the Super Bowl’s expensive tickets to the fact that the stadium only has so many seats available.
The SoFi Stadium is one of the newest stadiums built by the NFL.
It hosted the 2022 Super Bowl and has a seating capacity of 70,000.
This means that only 70,000 people can buy tickets to sit and watch the Super Bowl.
Considering that millions of people watch the Super Bowl game every year, there’s a substantial number of people who may want to get a ticket to the game but can’t because there aren’t enough seats.
This creates a massive shortage.
The demand for Super Bowl tickets is always high.
Whether it’s NFL fans, fans from the teams who are playing in the game, or even just Super Bowl fans who attend every year, there are tons of different people trying to get into the game each year.
With that many people trying to get tickets, ticket prices soar.
This is especially true if you’re using a ticket seller who auctions tickets.
Buying tickets for the Super Bowl often ends up becoming a matter of who has the most cash to throw around.
10. Length Of Time Before The Game Date
A final reason Super Bowl tickets are expensive has to do with how late you buy your tickets.
When Super Bowl tickets first go on sale, there’s usually a mad dash for them.
Everyone is trying to get the best seats possible.
While this does make tickets expensive, they become even more expensive as time goes on.
Even cheap seats start to sell for much higher prices because the supply of seats is becoming smaller.
Demand grows with each passing day that gets closer to the game date for the Super Bowl.
If you choose to wait until the day before the game to buy your tickets, you can expect prices to be very high.
That’s because ticket sellers count on some people waiting until the day before to get their tickets.
Since there’s usually a lot of demand for those final tickets, they tend to be some of the most expensive ones.
Conclusion
The Super Bowl is one of the biggest events in sports.
With top-tier talent at the halftime show and limited edition merchandise sold only at the stadium, a lot of people want to get in to watch the game.
However, depending on where you’re sitting, you may find that your tickets are extremely expensive.
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