5 Ways to Get Super Bowl Tickets

Every year the Super Bowl receives more hype, more publicity and more ad dollars than the year before (will this continue in a recession?). The stands are primarily filled with rich people, insiders and front office types and the games, save for last year, rarely live up to expectations. However, even with all the commercialism and puffery, attending a Super Bowl is still on nearly every die hard sports fans’ to do list. The following explains five ways to potentially land Super Bowl tickets. Some are pretty obvious (know someone, pay lots of money), others not so much (enter the lottery?!). Hopefully you’ll be able to use  one or two of them, or at the very least, learn something about Super Bowl ticket distribution.

1. Know Someone

Super Bowl ticket distribution is as follows: Each team in the NFL receives at least 1% of available Super Bowl tickets. The host team receives 9% of the Superbowl tickets, the two competing teams split approximately 35% of the tickets and the remaining 25% of the tickets are given to the NFL and their affiliates. This means that people with access to Super Bowl tickets covers a broad spectrum of people who you may know – corporate sponsors, network executives & underlings and front office employees at every team spanning the entire United States.

2. Become a Season Ticket Holder (of any team)

The vast majority of us don’t know someone with direct access to Super Bowl tickets. But if you’re a season ticket holder of one the two competing teams or the host team you at least have a shot at Super Bowl tickets. Even though your chances are still slim, many teams hold a lottery of some sort for their allocation of Super Bowl tickets. Additionally, since all NFL teams receive Super Bowl tickets, long time season ticket holders of those teams have been known to receive tickets as a token of appreciation from the teams. If any of this criteria fits you, call the team you’re a season ticket holder for and ask about your available options.

3. Pay Up

If you don’t know someone who is an insider, player or coach and you are not a season ticket holder or corporate sponsor your options become…expensive. Last year, Super Bowl tickets to the New England Patriots vs. the New York Giants sold for an average of $4,300 on Stubhub – an all time record. So if you have the funds it’s very easy and relatively safe to get tickets. Before these online ticket market places existed, having money was not always enough. Currently, the cheapest Super Bowl tickets at TicketStumbler (which compares multiple ticket providers at once) are $1600! Hopefully, prices go down as the Cardinals aren’t exactly a big market team.

4. Enter the Super Bowl Lottery

Most people aren’t aware that it’s possible to buy tickets through the NFL through their annual Super Bowl ticket drawing. Winning gives you the option to buy a pair of tickets for face value (approximately $400-$500 per ticket). If you’re interested in entering the lottery, write a request for two tickets between February 1st and June 1st of each year preceding the Super Bowl. Ticket request must sent via registered or certified mail and should be sent to:

NFL Super Bowl Game
280 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017

Additionally, there’s only allowed to be one request per household. To increase your odds, have your friends and family enter the drawing, remember to send your request via certified mail, don’t send duplicate requests and be familiar with any updates to the NFL’s Super Bowl Ticket Policy or address.

5. Street Scalp (with caution)

If none of the first five options work, you happen to live close to the host stadium and you don’t mind ending up with nil, it could be worth trying to buy tickets from a street scalper. To do this effectively, wait until the game has already started before approaching the street scalpers. At this point in time the scalper has a rapidly depreciating asset (tickets) and needs to sell them quickly, or he risks not being able to sell them at all. For each minute of the game that goes by his tickets are worth less. Some venues and teams offer broker zones, which I’d recommend using.

Note: Buying from street scalpers carries significantly more risk than buying from reputable online market places that offer money back guarantees. However, if you really want to go and don’t have any other options it serves as a last resort.

Final Thoughts

Although the Super Bowl is an expensive ticket, I think it’d be fun to go to once. Since the matchup (Pittsburgh Steelers vs Arizona Cardinals) doesn’t have near the widespread appeal as last years Patriots vs. Giants game, expect ticket prices to go down, and be on the look out for last minute deals – especially in this economy. Good luck and expect Kurt Warner to unleash some more dragons.