In 2006 the Super Bowl is coming to my hometown, Detroit.
A friend of mine (also living in DC) and I would like to go, regardless of who’s playing. Given the high demand and the number of seats that are reserved for team officials, family members, and stars of whatever high-rated sitcoms are on the network broadcasting the game, we thought we should start investigating our options now.
So if anyone has any insight on the process or what avenues are available, please let me know. Note: Buying scalped tickets on-site is not an option. I’m not flying home to Detroit unless the tickets are secure.
Presuming the NFL doesn’t change things…once 2005 arrives, you’ll have from February until June to mail in an entry to a mail-in lottery for the right to buy tickets.
The page doesn’t mention how many tickets are available. If your entry isn’t picked, and you’re willing to pay a lot, you can secure tickets through ticket brokers ahead of time. This is safer than depending on scalpers outside the stadium, but probably will cost you $1000 per. Start saving now!
Scalped tickets are it. Unless you are a season ticket holder (which I assume you would have mentioned), you do not possess ANY chance of buying a ticket. They are all allocated – although the teams or the stadium can decide to put some of their allocation on the market, in which case they’ll do so at face value.
However, I am using a broad definition of “scalped.” In fact, many of these tickets are snapped up by legitimate agencies that package them with tours or travel packages. Google for “superbowl tickets” and you will find a number of paid links (over on the right) to such agencies. The resale cost is still high, though. The number of people seeking tickets will be between 2 and 3 million, and the number of tickets available will be less than one percent of that.
Thanks, all. Money isn’t much of an object here (especially since we wouldn’t have to pay for a hotel or anything… unless our parents decide to renounce us :D).
Sounds like it’s a matter of keeping my ears/eyes peeled as the date approaches.
Has anyone here actually been to the Super Bowl? What’s it like?
I know someone who works for the promotions/organizational (he travels from place to place working on big sports events, olympics, Pan-Am games etc) end of it, and he has offered me tickets for next years Super Bowl, I can ask if he knows if he is working on the 2006 one??
When I was a teenager and the Super Bowl was in my hometown of San Diego way back when, I smelled a business opportunity. I bought some tickets, then packaged them with a condo for several days and tickets to the zoo and sold them to people from the home cities of the participating teams. A couple things from that experience that are likely true here:
a) If you call everybody you know back in Detroit, somebody will know somebody who has tickets. They are more plentiful then you would think, especially in the home town.
b) Various trading events come together where people buy and sell tickets amongst themselves. If you can watch local papers or find somebody back home to do it for you, you’ll see these things. Have someone go and pick up what you want. The good thing about these is that there are tons of tickets there, so you can find seats that match your price range. Also, you’ll walk away with tickets in your hand, as opposed to buying on eBay.
c) On the day of the event, you’ll likely be able to go there and buy tickets; there are always ones left over. And the price won’t be as bad, as the seller has to get rid of it. However, there will only be lousy seats available.
That’s a cool idea, Bill H.. However, let’s just say Detroit is somewhat lacking when it comes to putting together an entire tourism package. Not sure if those will be so plentiful.
(There will almost certainly, however, be packages involving the game and the casinos. That’s a golden business opportunity.)
I went to SB XXXV between the Giants and Ravens (boo!). The Super Bowl is such a major event and brings in a lot of money for the host city. Not just in the spike in tourism that is provided but by getting business people into the area to see the city. This is how my dad picked up tickets.
It was a lot of fun. The city goes all out to showcase itself. Regardless of the teams playing it is a great experience. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a celeb of some sort (politics, entertainment, sports). I don’t know how much of this would be true in a cold weather city like Detroit. I can’t imagine Detroit in January is anything like Tampa was so I don’t know about the other activities going on. The game itself shouldn’t be too much different.
The atmosphere is not just around the stadium it’s the whole city. A buzz builds up for the entire week (at least) before the game. Flying in and out of Tampa the plane and airport was packed with people attending the game. The gentleman sitting next to me on my flight out was a Ravens fan and season ticket holder. He told me he had been to three Super Bowls before and that SB35 was his fourth. He didn’t win any tickets in the season ticket holder lottery so he went through a ticket-broker and said he paid more for the ticket, but it was worth it since it was “his” team.
If you’ve got the money and it’s something you really want to do it is worth it (I say this even though the Giants played terrible and I got my tickets for free).
Hmmm… considering I work for the owner of the stadium (well, kind of) – even though his team doesn’t stand a chance in hell of being there – I wonder if there’s a way to get tickets through my work connections? Maybe it’s finally time to start demanding kickbacks from some of my preferred suppliers. Now if I can only think of a way to declare that they’re less than $50 and have the vendor accompany me there…
Seriously, though, if you know anyone in the auto business that’s “lease car” or higher (i.e., no a peon), you may have a chance to score tickets.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. What I meant was that I had an experience acquiring Superbowl tickets, and in that experience I found it rather easy to find them. I didn’t mean to propose that you should repackage or resell them, just that here are a few ways you can find them.
