SAN FRANCISCO — The ticket resale market is finally giving up some secrets about Super Bowl LX.
The early trend of buyers is shaping the crowd into a Seattle Seahawks home game. The New England area buyers have been slower to the table than their counterparts. And thus far, fans in general appear to be adhering to last season’s doctrine of patience when it comes to buying — which could send prices for the cheapest tickets even lower as we approach the weekend.
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That’s according to broader data across multiple platforms in the ticket resale market, which have seen “get-in” prices (the cheapest available seats to get into Super Bowl LX) dip considerably since the conclusion of the conference title games on Jan. 25. Get-in ticket pricing was as high as $6,200 near the end of last week, before sinking nearly 30 percent early this week into the $4,300 range — largely due to the market absorbing ticket inventory that bloated to nearly 4,200 seats just two days after the conference title games.
Those prices have now stabilized and rebounded slightly, fluctuating in the $4,900 to $5,000 range depending on the buying platform.
But an interesting trend from last year appears to be lingering: Showing patience in purchasing. Last season, several platforms saw more than 50 percent of their Super Bowl ticket inventory sell between Friday evening and Sunday’s kickoff between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. Some of those same platforms are now anticipating that it could be a similar trend this season, with Seahawks fans being patient due to their relatively close geographical proximity to San Francisco (thus allowing them to buy later and travel later), and Patriots fans potentially sitting the game out because of the significant travel expense from the New England area to Northern California.
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Whatever the factors, ticket marketplaces are watching inventory and buying trends closely as the midweek arrives — with some expecting that prices could duplicate last season’s Super Bowl and become more reasonable as available seats increase as Sunday approaches.
“We expect prices to continue to decline as the game approaches, while we anticipate demand to increase as well — mirroring trends seen in prior years,” said Michael Stock, the director of pricing and business strategy for ticket marketplace Gametime. “…We do not expect this year’s game to approach the record [average] prices of 2024 in Las Vegas. While this year’s game has increased to be more expensive than last year, we do not expect prices to continue to rise, and expect them to settle in-line with [the games in] 2022, 2023 [and] 2025.”
Heading into Wednesday morning, Gametime’s cheapest get-in ticket was $4,892 (including fees), while its most expensive ticket was a 10th row lower bowl seat behind the Seahawks’ bench for $39,041. Average ticket prices across multiple platforms have ranged in the $9,000 range (including fees) heading into Wednesday morning — which is nearly double the average price the last time the Seahawks and Patriots met in Super Bowl XLIX in 2015. Overall inventory on the market also continued to hover in the 4,000 range.
When contrasting sales from the Portland/Seattle area to the Boston/New England areas, Gametime reported an early Seahawks sales lean of 5.5 to 1. Ultimately, the trend line is forecasting a game that will likely land in the top five in average historical Super Bowl ticket prices, but not quite reach the potential of what might have been achieved had the Buffalo Bills or San Francisco 49ers landed in the game.
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“This year’s matchup, featuring two teams with recent Super Bowl success in the last decade or so, has seen fairly stable pricing trends,” Stock said. “In contrast, if teams like the Buffalo Bills or hometown San Francisco 49ers had made the game, we would have expected never-before-seen prices. When New England won the AFC, prices barely changed, and when Seattle won the NFC, we only saw modest price increases.”
With get-in prices sinking to as low as $2,600 to $2,700 (before fees) late in the week for last year’s Super Bowl buyers, that stable trend and some patience could be good news for fans who appear to be once again willing to wait. For now, brokers are watching closely.
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