Super Bowl LI ticket prices for Patriots vs. Falcons near record highs
The Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots exiting Sunday with Super Bowl berths was predicted to be the least-compelling combination of teams when it came to the demand on the secondary ticket market.
Fans in Georgia, however, have been the biggest purchaser of Super Bowl tickets on StubHub over the last 24 hours and 30% of the site traffic on SeatGeek for Super Bowl tickets has come from the state, according to information provided to USA TODAY Sports on Monday. The demand from Falcons fans, coupled with a relatively low inventory, has the average listing price on the secondary ticket market of about $6,000, which is as high as it's been this far out from the event in the statistics kept by ticket-tracking and sale site TicketIQ since 2010.
"The biggest surprise is the demand in Georgia," StubHub spokesperson Cameron Papp told USA TODAY Sports. "Yesterday's playoff game in Atlanta had the most tickets sold for any non-Super Bowl playoff game in terms to tickets sold in StubHub history."
There were about 1,500 seats available on the secondary ticket market as of noon ET on Monday, though inventory tends to double a week after the conference championship games. Even if that happens, this could go down as the lowest inventory available for a Super Bowl this decade.
The reason for the expected lower inventory is related to the number of tickets sold as part of packages, including through the league's official site, NFL On Location. The site offers tickets bundles that currently range in price from $7,249 to $12,749, each with features such as pre-game parties, concerts and transportation.
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"So many of these tickets are pushed through packages," TicketIQ spokesperson Jesse Lawrence said. "The value for these packages has been very high. There's value for the consumer when you buy a ticket package weeks out and know you're going to have a seat from the game."
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TicketIQ lists 1,653 tickets available for the game, a third the inventory of last year’s game at this point. Since Ticket IQ began tracking numbers in 2010, Super Bowl XLIV (Indianapolis Colts vs. New Orleans Saints) in February 2010, had the fewest tickets (3,129) this far in advance.
The ticket prices have declined between the conference titles games and the Super Bowl in five of the last six big games, according to according to SeatGeek.
The average resale price on SeatGeek for the game was about $6,400 as of Monday, which is more than the record set last year ($4,531) since SeatGeek began tracking the Super Bowl in 2010. The get-in price, the cheapest ticket on sale for the game, has ticked up slightly to $3,600 over the last 24 hours on SeatGeek.
"The interest from Falcons fans has been more than what most people anticipated," SeatGeek spokesperson Chris Leyden said. "That's a major reason we haven't seen prices drop much yet. Most felt that it'd dip since the Packers were eliminated, but it's holding steady."
The most expensive seat on the secondary market as of Monday was a 200 level suite ticket for $434,000 on SeatGeek.
