Now that the Super Bowl is coming to the New York metro area, if you want your chance to finally see the big game in person, get ready to pay up. NY1’s Jon Weinstein filed the following report.
At 6:30 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday, MetLife Stadium will be the center of the universe. And you can be there, for a price.
Right now, ticket re-seller StubHub says that the average ticket cost on their site is $3,500. Yes, $3,500.
“It’s about 33 percent more expensive than tickets have been typically sold in previous years,” said Smita Saran of StubHub.
Face value for tickets generally starts at $500 a seat and ranges up from there, but those tickets are mostly distributed to NFL teams and are extremely difficult for the general public to get their hands on. So the everyday fans are stuck searching for secondhand tickets that, on StubHub, range from about $1,800 to more than $10,000 a seat.
“Ridiculous. That’s money for a car, a kid’s college,” said one person. “It’s a lot. It’s a lot.”
“If I had enough that that wasn’t much, I’m sure it’d be a fun time,” said another.
The astronomical prices aren’t appealing to one transplanted Seahawks fan, even though his team is playing in the big game.
He’s not alone. The most popular response from fans when asked if they were going to the game was that they preferred to stay at home.
“I’ll sit at home and watch it on TV,” said one person.
“I’m much more comfortable to stay at home with friends and family and have some pizza and beer,” said another. “That’s perfect for me.”
Sports marketing expert Joe Favorito said that the other events surrounding the Super Bowl will allow New Yorkers to feel like a part of the action, even if they can’t be in the stadium.
“Whether it’s Super Bowl Boulevard or going to a party, which there are hundreds of, and then go home and watch the game like they do every year,” Favorito said.
If being there is all you care about, StubHub’s expert does have some final tips. Be patient, wait till game day and hope for bad weather.
“The longer you wait, the better deal you’re going to get,” Saran said.
Even if that “deal” isn’t much of a bargain at all.