Seahawks-Broncos At MetLife Stadium Are Most Expensive Super Bowl Tickets In Last Six Years

By Jesse Lawrence, Contributor

With their win against 49ers, the Seahawks are headed to the Super Bowl for the first time in eight years. Thecheapest face price ticket for the 2005 Super Bowl was $600, compared to $500 this year. The most expensive face price ticket for XLVIII is $2,600 compared to last year’s top-priced ticket of $1,250. Of course, face-price tickets are long gone, and for those 12th-Men looking to see the Seahawks go for their first NFL Championship, Super Bowl ticketswill run an average of $4,080. At that price, this is the most expensive average ticket price on the secondary market over the last six years, immediately following championship Sunday. In those same four years, prices have decreased an average of 23% between championship Sunday and Super Bowl Sunday. If the 2014 Super Bowl decreases by that 23% average, it would still be the second most expensive Super Bowl in the last five years. Below is a chart of the average price after Championship Sunday over the last six years.

In the 1993 romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle, Tom Hank’s character finds love atop the Empire State Building 18 years after losing it. With their win against the 49ers, the Seahawks will be headed to New York in search of something perhaps as meaningful to the legions of Seahawks fan: A first Super Bowl victory. For Seattle, it would be the first championship since 1979 outside of the Major League Soccer. It would also be the first championship, other than the Sounders, for a team that Seattle can still claim as their own. While most sports fans are old enough to remember the SuperSonics, who left Seattle in 2008 for Oklahoma City, not many will recall the Seattle Metropolitans. They were the first American hockey team to win the Stanley Cup, all the way back in 1917. Despite that meaningful designation, they’re now nothing more than a historical footnote.

Needless to say, there’s quite a bit of pent-up demand in Seattle for championships. Right now, the cheapest ticket will set back a Seahawks or Broncos fan $2,100. At that price you’ll be very much exposed to the elements, in the 26th and last row of the 300s level. The most expensive ticket is currently listed at $11,442 for a 5th row seat in the Coaches Club section. In addition to being just five yards behind the bench, you also get access to a 20,000 square foot bar and lounge, where you can retreat if the elements prove too much to bear.

At 83,000 seats, Metlife Stadium is the biggest Super Bowl venue since 2011, when the Packers beat the Steelers. Here’s a Metlife Seating Chart for more details. Usually, higher quantity leads to lower prices. That year, however, prices only decreased 10% from their post championship Sunday price. The biggest factor were the fan bases, both of which traveled well, and in numbers. This year, Broncos tickets and Seahawks tickets had the 2nd and 3rd most expensive average ticket prices in the league, with a combined average of $330. If the respective fan bases buy SuperBowl tickets like they did home games, this will not only have been the coldest Super Bowl ever, but maybe the most expensive as well.

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