Tickets for the Rams-Patriots Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium yesterday were "selling for between $3,490 to $16,787 each at Ace Ticket and for between $3,795 and $13,000 at Ticketmaster," according to Marie Szaniszlo of the BOSTON HERALD. SeatGeek was "selling tickets ranging from $3,125 to $13,300, but tacked on 'seller and delivery fees' of $937 to $3,176, respectively." Ace Ticket CEO Jim Holzman said that the "most expensive Super Bowl tickets his company sold" were for Super Bowl XLIX in '15. Holzman added that this year’s Ace Ticket prices are up 10% from last year’s, partly because Atlanta is "warm and easy to get to," but the "main reason is Tom Brady." Holzman: "How many times can he do this?" (BOSTON HERALD, 1/22). TickPick co-CEO Brett Goldberg said that the average price for tickets to this year's Super Bowl "declined on his marketplace" from $6,920 before Sunday’s conference championship games to $6,812 yesterday morning. However, he added that the "low -- or 'get-in' -- price increased from about $3,450 to $3,589." Goldberg perceives ticket demand to be "lower than for last year’s Super Bowl" featuring Eagles-Patriots, and he "attributed that to 'the fanatic Eagles fans compared to the newer Rams fan base'" (AJC.com, 1/21).
BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT: In California, Jim Alexander writes the Rams making it to the Super Bowl is "what the NFL had in mind when it finally returned to the L.A. market" in '16, 21 years after "abandoning it." In capturing the imagination of Southern California, "winning is far from the only factor, but it’s critical." Making it to the Super Bowl "should put at least a temporary end to the narrative about how SoCal doesn’t care about the Rams, or about the NFL." The Rams and the Chargers are still "developing fan bases." The Rams have an "edge in that competition, because (a) they were here for 49 seasons previously, compared to the Chargers’ one; (b) they moved back a year earlier, and (c) their practice facility and headquarters in Thousand Oaks are physically closer to the center of power (i.e., L.A.’s TV stations) than is the Chargers’ HQ in Costa Mesa" (Riverside PRESS-ENTERPRISE, 1/22).
