Buying Super Bowl tickets a new experience for most Chiefs fans. Expect sticker shock
Here’s the good news if you’re considering a trip to Miami to follow the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl: Tickets are still available.
Just be prepared for the sticker shock.
Ticket prices have soared for the game between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, set for Feb. 2 at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
As of Monday afternoon, tickets on StubHub.com ranged from $4,950-$16,500, plus service fees. Ticket prices started at $5,700 on SeatGeek.com. Other secondary ticket sites advertised get-in prices starting at $4,500, but it’s buyer beware when it comes to assorted service charges, which can push the actual cost of a ticket much higher.
For many fans, it comes down to this:
What are you willing to pay for what could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience?
“We understand it’s tough for the average person to go,” said Jen Forrest, director of marketing for TicketsForLess.com in Overland Park. “But we’re seeing a lot of interest from diehard fans.”
Buying Super Bowl tickets to watch the Chiefs hasn’t even been an option for KC fans since 1970, when the average ticket price for Super Bowl IV was $15.
Adjusted for inflation, that ticket would set you back $100 in today’s currency — still a far cry from what people will spend to attend Super Bowl LIV (fun fact: the Chiefs-Vikings game in 1970 was the first game for which tickets were imprinted with the words “Super Bowl”; before then, it was billed as the “World Championship Game”).
According to online ticket broker TicketIQ, “get-in” ticket prices on the secondary market — the actual lowest price one can pay to attend, including service charges and fees — have risen, sometimes sharply, in the days between the conference championship games and Super Bowl Sunday in three of the previous four years.
Forrest said she expects that trend to continue this year.
“As demand for tickets grows, inventory goes down and prices will go up,” Forrest said. “If you really want to go to the game, I wouldn’t wait until the last minute.”
Indeed, some Chiefs fans are buying now. Ticketmaster, a partner with the NFL, reported that fans in Kansas paid the highest average price for a Super Bowl ticket — $13,360 — on Sunday, some 23 percent higher than any other state.
Fans in Missouri and Kansas accounted for 36 percent of Ticketmaster’s Super Bowl sales Sunday, with California at 23 percent.
Also notable: Chiefs fans are buying the more expensive club seats and lower-level section tickets at a greater rate than 49ers fans.
Prices are driven by demand and limited availability. The NFL distributes 17.5 percent of available tickets to each participating team. Another 5 percent goes to the host team, in this case the Miami Dolphins. And 34.8 percent of total tickets are split among the league’s other teams.
The remaining 25.2 percent of tickets? They’re controlled by the NFL and are given to partners, sponsors, networks and media.
From the Chiefs’ allotment, a drawing was held for season-ticket holders. This “ticket lottery” was conducted by a third-party company, and the team had the results in hand before the Chiefs’ AFC Championship Game victory over the Tennessee Titans Sunday night.
After that game, all season-ticket holders were informed by email if they were selected for the right to purchase tickets, according to a team spokesman.
Season-ticket members that weren’t selected were directed to Ticketmaster or ticket/travel packages created by the NFL.
TicketsForLess is looking to take advantage of being a hometown provider and sweeten its Super Bowl ticket deals with a package that includes a gift card to Rally House, an autographed item from a Chiefs player and an invitation to a Super Bowl party hosted by agent Leigh Steinberg, who happens to represent Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
It’s Mahomes’ voice callers hear on the recorded message that plays when you dial up the Johnson County-based ticket company.
“Hey, this is Patrick Mahomes,” the greeting says. “Thank you for calling Tickets for Less.”
“We’re just as excited as every Chiefs fan,” Forrest said. “This is our team.”
This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Buying Super Bowl tickets a new experience for most Chiefs fans. Expect sticker shock."