Fans for the first time "can buy Super Bowl tickets straight from" the NFL, as the league has now made Super Bowl LI ticket packages "available through a site run by Ticketmaster," according to Soshnick & Novy-Williams of BLOOMBERG NEWS. Fans "will get to pick their specific seats, attend parties before and after the Feb. 5 championship in Houston and, in some cases, get on-field access after the game." On Location Experiences, the NFL's official hospitality partner, is "assembling the packages for the league." On Location Experiences CEO John Collins said, "Now you have certainty that what you're buying is what you're getting, right down to the seat location." The company will "get 9,500 tickets to sell." Super Bowl tickets previously had "only been distributed through the NFL and its 32 teams." Soshnick & Novy-Williams noted the NFL is an "investor in On Location Experiences through 32 Equity, the league's private equity arm" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 9/21). ESPN.com's Darren Rovell noted prices for the tickets, which "include a pregame party and early access to Houston's NRG Stadium, the site of Super Bowl LI, or similar parties within the stadium security perimeter, start at $5,599 and run up to $14,449 for the best seat." The "most expensive package includes a pass to be on the field when the game ends." While the ticket prices "come at a huge premium compared to secondary market sites like StubHub, the tickets that went on sale" yesterday are for exact seats. Sites like StubHub "only promise zones of the stadium." The idea to "create a marketplace like this was born out of the short-selling fiasco from Super Bowl XLIX" at Univ. of Phoenix Stadium in '15 (ESPN.com, 9/21).
