Have you ever been one of those NFL fans asking your friends “what’s it cost to go to the Super Bowl?” If so, you’ve likely been met by a number of blank stares, as everyone’s just about as clueless as you are. The folks over at Priceline.com aren’t as clueless, though, and they’ve done the homework to dig up the answers you’ve been looking for.
Unless you’re filthy rich, buying Super Bowl tickets is long since off the table — they’ve been sold out for quite some time. But presuming you had tickets, or you just wanted to hit the NFL’s biggest tailgater, what does a trip to the Super Bowl cost?
That depends in part on your alcohol budget, but is arguably even more influenced by your location in the United States.
According to TiqIQ, before the AFC Conference Championship and NFC Conference Championship games took place, the average game ticket to the Super Bowl cost $3,374. And no, we didn’t forget the decimal. As of last week, the average Super Bowl ticket price had gone up to $4,174.50.
Even crazier: that price is just two-percent higher than it was for the 2013 Super Bowl at the same time.
OK, so say you had a ticket and wanted to go. What do the travel costs actually look like? Not pretty.
New England Patriots fans who bought their airline tickets the week before Deflate-gate and the Conference Championship game against the Colts could have paid as little as $343 round-trip for airfare departing Jan. 31 and returning Feb. 2nd. Before the big snow storm in the Northeast, the range for round-trip airfare between Boston and Phoenix ranged from $704 to $1,227.
Seattle Seahawks fans would have it a little easier, though they’d still be gouged. Two weeks ago the least expensive round-trip airfare from Seattle to Phoenix was $303. Last weekend it had jumped to somewhere between $664 and $1,021.
As a frequent traveler, I can tell you that buying tickets at the last minute is inherently an expensive proposition. Even so, that pricing is nuts. Ditto for hotels, particualrly for NFL weekends, but the Super Bowl hotel rates last weekend ranged from anywhere between $117 and $1,999 per night.
And you wonder why so many people just choose to watch the game at home, where the only expense is food and beverage. And oh yeah, that’s the only way to see the Super Bowl commercials, too. Yep, looks like watching from the sofa is a better bet.
