Host the most popular sporting event in the United States in the second largest metropolitan area. And add to that the stadium’s home team faces a rival that has never won a championship. What do you get? Not surprisingly, record prices for Super Bowl tickets.
SeatGeek said the average price customers paid for Super Bowl tickets through Monday was $10,427. StubHub has an average of $9,800. The cheapest seats at the event are selling for about $7,000.
Super Bowl ticket prices could go up in the coming days. A record number of tickets are expected to be sold for the big game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. The event will be held at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
“This is Los Angeles. The entertainment capital of the world, where the prices of everything are through the roof. This is a perfect storm,” said Adam Budelli, spokesman for StubHub.
The fact that Los Angeles fans don’t have to pay for flights and hotels is going to drive up the price, Budelli said. And this year’s Super Bowl will be the first to be held in Los Angeles in 30 years.
“Proximity to the event for fans of the teams is always an important factor in pricing,” he said.
The average price for Sunday’s NFC Championship game, the same in Los Angeles, also broke a record. The average cost paid for that game was $1,100, well above the $674 average for the NFC championship game.
A ticket to last year’s Super Bowl, which took place in Tampa, Florida, cost $8,600 on SeatGeek. That game also featured a home team in the game: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But tickets for that match were priced somewhat disproportionately, as seating was limited due to covid-19 precautions.
The last Super Bowl before COVID-19, the 2020 game in Miami, had an average price of $8,550 per seat on StubHub.
Along with fans, Los Angeles fans are always among the most eager for Super Bowl tickets, said Chris Leyden, director of consumer strategy for SeatGeek.
Along with New Yorkers, Los Angeles fans are consistently among the biggest buyers of Super Bowl tickets, said Chris Leyden, director of consumer strategy for SeatGeek. They are just behind the fans of the host city and those of the two cities where the contending teams play.
Leyden said Cincinnati will be well represented, based on where fans went online to find tickets after the Bengals’ upset win on Sunday.
“Even though it’s a small market, when the drought is this long there’s going to be a lot of excitement,” he said.