Fans who were hoping to score a deal on Super Bowl tickets in the days leading up to the big game at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium this Sunday may be out of luck.
The highly anticipated event features the NFC champion Los Angeles Rams playing at their home stadium against the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. Super Bowl LVI won’t just be the venue’s first NFL title game, but it will also mark the first professional football championship to be played in L.A. County in almost 30 years.
With the Super Bowl city’s home team in the game for a second consecutive year — last year it was in Tampa, Florida, and the Tom Brady-led Buccaneers won — tickets are a hot commodity.
A representative from ticket reseller StubHub said the hometown crowd will likely mean a late increase in prices as hometown fans try to lock in a seat, a trend that was spotted before the most recent Rams win.
“Given the last-minute ticket purchases from Rams fans for the NFC Championship game, we’re predicting a late surge from the home team,” said Mike Silveira, spokesperson for StubHub.
As of Friday, StubHub said Californians made up 28% of their purchases with 12% of buyers coming from the Bengals’ home state of Ohio.
A look at some popular ticketing websites early Monday afternoon showed that prices remained exorbitantly high, with the cheapest still well above $4,000. And those amounts are still significantly lower than the most expensive options, which in some cases have sellers seeking upward of $50,000.
Here’s what seats are being sold for on the various sites:
Ticketmaster
On the league’s official ticket marketplace, the least expensive ticket as of early Monday afternoon was going for $4,500, with the highest listed at $55,000. But both prices don’t include fees, which vary from $1,000 to even $10,000, depending on the ticket’s initial cost.
StubHub
The cheapest seats had an asking price of $4,845, while the priciest were around $48,392. Add in the service charge and that instantly translates to $6,143 and $61,338.
Want to buy parking on the site, too? That’ll set you back anywhere from $386 to a whopping $6,203 — fees included.
On Location
If you want some perks with your tickets, the NFL’s official hospitality provider has packages starting at roughly $4,972 per person, with the most expensive listed at around $21,250. Amenities vary and may involve access to the pre-game party, open bar, entertainment and more.
The service fee varied from under $1,000 to over $3,000, depending on the package.
SeatGeek
This site showed prices ranging from about $4,351 on the lower end, to roughly $41,638 on the upper end. Like the other sellers, SeatGeek too has expensive fees that will push the total to at least $1,000 higher for the least expensive seats to nearly $7,000 for the priciest ones.
Vivid Seats
Talk about a cost differential. Vivid Seats’ cheapest Super Bowl ticket was being sold for around $4,419 (minus the service charge), while the priciest option — a suite — was listed for a staggering $646,896. For some perspective, that amount is not too far off from the six-county median sale price to purchase a home in Southern California, which approached $700,000 last month, according to the Los Angeles Times.
TicketIQ
For a fee-free option, Ticket IQ had its lowest-priced seats at $5,533, with the highest at $55,091. The website also offered some parking options, ranging from $100 to $4,110.
According to TicketIQ data, the best time to purchase Super Bowl tickets at a cheaper price is generally six to eight days after the conference title game. Looking at the past five Super Bowls, prices have increased an average of 28% in the eight days before the event, meaning those who are hoping to score a great deal at the last minute may just wind up getting priced out, the website said.
Editor’s note: Prices may have changed since this article was published.