With the Super Bowl on the horizon, big questions beckon. Will Patrick Mahomes be healthy for the Chiefs? Can the Eagles ride the momentum gained from a huge win over the 49ers? Oh, and how much are tickets?
The Super Bowl isn’t just for anybody. Cost of admission has always been through the roof, making it a spectacle most of us catch, quite happily, from our living rooms. This year, it all goes down on February 12th in Glendale, Arizona. And if you’re thinking about getting your hands on a ticket, prepare the shell out.
Super Bowl tickets 2023
Tickets to this year’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles are averaging right about $10,000, per Forbes. That’s good for the third-highest average price of all time. The most luxe tickets cost about as much as a new car, or $40K.
But that’s just an average of that ticket to the big game. Seatgeek is offering seats starting around $4900, before all the associated fees and add-ons. Suites (at least what’s left) start around $600,000 and go as high as $1.5 million. Yes, you get all the luxuries, including 18 tickets, VIP parking, and a generous food and booze allotment, but wow, that’s a lot of loot (especially for rooms that look decidedly underwhelming). If you’re a diehard gridiron fan, we won’t stop you. But we’re of the mind that that money could be spent better on countless dinners at some of the best restaurants in America, charity, or even your very own island.
One way to look at it, if you’re actually considering going, is bang for your buck over time. It’s typically a four-hour affair, plus the requisite tailgating and post-event partying. Plus, you get a halftime performance for the ages. This year’s performance will come courtesy of pop powerhouse Rihanna, and there will almost certainly be cameos, potentially from the likes of everybody from Kendrick Lamar and Paul McCartney to, gulp, Kanye West. Cut it up that way, and it’s $2,000 or less per hour, plus you get a concert out of the deal (and maybe you’ll even get your face on the jumbotron).
For comparison’s sake, here are some staggering numbers. In 1989, tickets cost about $110. Even with inflation, that’s not anywhere close to how expensive seats are today. Per CNBC, tickets to the World Cup Final in 2018, easily the planet’s most-watched sporting event, went for about $450-$1,100. A similar number of fans attended that match between France and Croatia, or about $80,000 (pre-COVID, mind you). Courtside tickets to a Lakers game can easily run you $3,000 but that seems like a deal when compared to the Super Bowl.
We can’t blame you if you want to hold on to that dough and instead spend a fraction of it on some Super Bowl appetizers or a nice bottle of Scotch. Whatever you decide to do, we’ll have you covered with suggestions on how to watch, what to eat, and how to enjoy the spirit of this, a football fan’s favorite time of the year. We’ll be watching from home, cooking up some great Super Bowl barbecue.
