Super Bowl Fatigue? Ticket Prices Are Dropping, As Patriots Return

WBUR

Published January 23, 2019 at 6:52 AM EST

Tom Brady and the Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl two seasons ago. They will return to the Super Bowl, in Atlanta, to face the Los Angeles Rams on Feb. 3. (Darron Cummings/AP)

Super Bowl tickets are super expensive, as always, but the average resale price is about $1,000 less than at this time last year.

And the price of admission to the big game has been dropping steadily since Sunday, when the Patriots won the AFC Championship. Again.

The average asking price on the secondary market is $7,078, according TicketIQ, a New York firm that aggregates tickets from multiple vendors. That’s an eye-popping sum but a relative bargain, compared with last season’s rate of more than $8,000.

The market for Super Bowl tickets is subject to multiple factors, including the number of available seats and the teams involved. New England’s appearance — the club’s fourth in five seasons — contributes to what TicketIQ founder Jesse Lawrence calls a “worst-case demand scenario.”

In any team’s fan base, there are only so many households that can afford a Super Bowl trip. Even among those few, it might be a once-in-a-lifetime indulgence.

“For lots of Patriots fans, that once-in-a-lifetime thing has already happened,” said Victor Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross.

The Pats are playing in their ninth Super Bowl since 2002.

Matheson and Lawrence noted the Patriots’ opponent, the Los Angeles Rams, only recently returned to that city, after a 21-season hiatus. The Rams do not have the passionate following in L.A. that the the Pats’ last Super Bowl foe, the Eagles, have in Philadelphia.

With Rams fans still developing and some Patriots fans tapped out, ticket prices could continue to decline, Lawrence predicted.

Fans who do go to the game in Atlanta may have to spend any ticket savings, relatively speaking — and then some — on lodging. The host city’s hotels are virtually sold out, enabling homeowners to command premium prices on booking sites like Airbnb.

Real estate broker Kianya Campbell owns or manages 13 residential properties within walking distance of Mercedes-Benz Stadium. She’s listed a three-bedroom house for more than $3,000 per night on Super Bowl weekend; a condo goes for about $2,500. Her prices are not out of the norm for properties so close to the stadium.

Campbell is a fan of the Falcons, the team the Patriots beat in a Super Bowl two years ago. But she is willing to rent to Pats fans.

“I personally don’t have any resentment toward them because [Rob] Gronkowski is on my fantasy football team,” Campbell said. “So, I appreciate him and believe in him and wholeheartedly support him.”