How to Get Super Bowl Tickets

In a normal year, the NFL distributes a certain number of tickets to each of the 32 NFL teams. For example, in the February 2020 game, at the end of the 2019 season, the two teams involved in the Super Bowl — the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs — split 35 percent of the tickets. Each of those teams figured out how to divvy their tickets among coaches and players, other team personnel, team season ticket holders, and various other team loyalists. The league gave the host team a chunk of tickets, too, and each of the other NFL squads received an even smaller portion.

That left about 25 percent or so for the league itself, which it distributed to its rich and powerful friends, leaving a very limited amount to sell to the general public through the NFL's On Location Experiences [source: Breech].

As we said, though, and as everybody knows, 2021 isn't a normal year. After a 2020 season played amid the coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 Super Bowl — officially, it's Super Bowl LV, scheduled for Feb. 7, 2021, at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium — may end up being played mostly in front of a crowd of health care workers.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has made it clear he'd like have as many health care heroes into the roughly 65,000 seats of Raymond James Stadium as is safely possible. And on Jan. 22, the NFL made the announcement official. The NFL will provide 7,500 free tickets to vaccinated health care workers. An additional 14,500 fans also will be allowed to attend the game. The decision came after discussions with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Florida Department of Health, and area hospitals and health care systems.

If you're not a health care worker, or lucky enough to grab one of the other 14,000 or so tickets, there's still a chance you can get to the big game. On Location Experiences is advertising tickets. The NFL promises to enhance its rigorous COVID-19 protocols like social distancing and masking for anyone attending the game. It promises to be an in-stadium experience like no other Super Bowl — ever.

Buying Super Bowl tickets from a reseller on the street might not be the best idea, as many of those tickets could be counterfeit. EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images

It should be clear at this point that getting Super Bowl tickets, in 2021 especially, is incredibly difficult. The only real option for most Super Bowl ticket buyers this year, barring any new public health surprises that may open up the game, is to buy them online through the NFL or on the secondary or resale market. And even that's dicey.

Online ticket resellers like StubHub and SeatGeek work by connecting buyers with ticket holders who want to sell. Those sellers may be individual season ticket holders who won a team lottery, or professional ticket brokers. The website makes money by taking a cut of the sales price and sometimes charging fees.

Pricing on the secondary market is pure supply and demand. Ticket prices go up or down based on the number of tickets available and how many people want to buy them. For example, in 2018 when it looked like the Minnesota Vikings might play in the Super Bowl — becoming the first team ever to play the big game on its home field — eager Vikings' fans caused ticket prices on the secondary market to spike before the home team lost to the Eagles [source: Roberts].

For Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, the average resale ticket price for the game between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams was more than $7,000 [source: Barrabi]. As of this writing, the cheapest resale ticket on SeatGeek for the 2021 Super Bowl is $4,804 — yes, that's for a single ticket.

The On Location Experiences official ticket packages sold in 2021 through the NFL — which include premium in-game and postgame events, often stocked with celebrities and former athletes — start at $5,100 apiece. Though this year's add-ons will probably be virtual. A front row (or as close as you can get to it in COVID-19 times) package for two people will cost close to $30,000 [source: On Location].

Ticket prices tend to spike right after a conference championship and fall as game day approaches two weeks later. So, if you happen to live in or near the city where one of the conference championship games are played, it might be smart to wait until the very end if you haven't gotten your tickets yet [source: Goldberg]. You just might score a relative "bargain."

Originally Published: Oct 13, 2010