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VIDEOTicket Resellers Set Astronomical Prices for Big Game
By
John F Kelly Nov 02, 2009 10:20 am
One Super Bowl ticket can cost as much as a house.
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If you're able to actually get a seat at any one of America's mega sporting events, congratulations! You're a member of an extremely elite club. According to Rafi Mohammed, author of The Art of Pricing (Crown Business, 2005) and owner of Culture of Profit, a business consulting company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, only 1% of Super Bowl tickets are offered to the public via lottery.
To buy these tickets, you have to send in a card indicating interest by June 1 of the previous year. Princeton University economist Alan Krueger reports that in 2001, more than 36,000 people vied for 500 pairs of tickets in the lottery.
"The odds of being admitted to Princeton are better," he said. "On game day, hundreds of frustrated fans displayed 'Ticket Wanted' signs and offered $1,500 and up for tickets outside the stadium."
So, what happens to the tickets not put up for the lottery? The NFL gets its cut (25.2% of tickets, which it distributes to marketing partners, celebrities, former players, and other VIPs), the two teams playing in the game get 17.5% each (splitting 35% of the tickets), the host city’s committee pockets 5%, and the remaining 30 NFL teams split the final 34.8%. A portion of those tickets are then resold at a much higher price than the ticket’s face value.
Last month, the broker Ticketmaster (TKTM) announced that it will begin issuing paperless tickets and that fans can now gain entrance to events by just presenting their license and credit card, which will greatly impact the trade of traditional scalping. You can’t stand outside an arena and sell a ticket that no longer exists. However, the business of ticket reselling via the Internet is now stronger than ever.
StubHub, which was acquired by eBay (EBAY) in 2007, is the largest online marketplace for the resale of tickets. The site reports that the highest price someone paid or a seat at the 2008 MLB All-Star Game at the since closed old Yankee Stadium was $14,500. Face value of the tickets ranged between $150 and $650, according to a league spokesman.
The site currently has more than 4,000 tickets for Miami’s Super Bowl XLIV on sale, a number that will surely increase as the February 7 date of the game draws closer. The face value of tickets for that game range between $700 and $900.
The asking price for a single ticket for the event on eBay is $182,520.
Continue reading this story, below, or click on a category to see who wins and who loses when the big game comes to town.
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