(KTLA) – If your plan to see the Rams take on the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI involved waiting until the last possible minute and hoping the prices would crater you may end up getting priced out.
Veteran secondhand buyers may be used to a flurry of selling just before game time as ticketholders look to get some value out of their extra seats, but ticket sellers say the hometown demand for such a significant game makes a Sunday morning selloff unlikely.
“California buyers will likely start buying in much higher volume between now and the game,” StubHub representative Mike Silveira said in a statement Monday. “As it is, CA buyers purchased 47% more tickets to the 2020 game – where the 49ers played in Miami – than they have so far, which leads us to believe demand will climb quickly closer to gameday,”
StubHub says the get-in price – the cost of the cheapest available seat – had remained steady at around $5,500, meaning a ticket much below that price may turn out to be a good deal. A search of available Super Bowl Tickets on resale sites showed a number below $5,000, before tacking on service fees that push many above that get-in price. So keep those fees in mind when shopping.
StubHub suggests signing up for price alerts from them if you have a target ticket price or location in mind. But be aware that your neighbors may have a similar strategy.
“Right now, California fans are buying the most tickets at 27% compared to 14% for Ohio and Kentucky, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. As we know, there could be Cincinnati transplants based in California, so that 27% could be a mix of both Bengals and Rams fans. But we also expect a late surge from more Los Angeles residents in the coming days, so that figure for California could grow even more before kickoff,” said Silveira.”
In other words, if you see a price you are willing to pay now, the folks selling the tickets say you may be better off locking that in now than rolling the dice closer to the weekend.
For those willing to shell out thousands on secondhand seats, StubHub has a few words of caution:
- Avoid paying cash and buying tickets on the street to stay away from potential fakes.
- Check to see if your seller partners with the NFL and can verify your tickets are legitimate
- Don’t post a photo of your tickets on social media, someone may be able to replicate the barcode.
As of Monday, the average sale price for a seat was just under $9,000, with nearly 1,000 available tickets listed on StubHub alone.
Once you’ve locked in your seats all you have to worry about is parking at SoFi Stadium, which has been running in the low hundreds up to $4,000 plus in nearby lots during Super Bowl week.