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Las Vegas has created a perfect storm for the Super Bowl LVIII ticket market.
A powerful combination of the NFL’s first visit to Sin City for its title game, the market’s perennial appeal to tourists, an attractive game matchup, an easy ability to attend other nearby sports events, and the relatively small seating capacity of Allegiant Stadium has created a series of records for the game.
Following an initial surge in market activity following the NFL’s conference championship games, the current average listing price of $9,458 for Super Bowl tickets is the most expensive figure at this point before the event, according to ticket aggregator TicketIQ. Perhaps even more notable, the average get-in listing price is $8,427, reflecting a much narrower price spread between lower-deck tickets and upper-deck ones than previous years. That figure is also the largest ever tracked by TicketIQ for a Super Bowl, and about 40% higher than any prior NFL title game.
On Location, the NFL’s official hospitality provider and a dominant force in the overall Super Bowl ticket market, similarly says it is poised to set a company revenue record for the event, though it declined to provide specific figures.
“It’s a new [Super Bowl] city, small stadium … designed with a lot of premium seating, and it’s, of course, Las Vegas,” Scott Jernigan, On Location’s chief commercial officer, tells Front Office Sports. “It adds up to people being super excited about this.”
Allegiant Stadium’s seating capacity of 65,000 is tied for the fourth-smallest among current NFL facilities. Then there’s the game matchup, which features the 49ers, whose in-market fan base is within easy reach of Las Vegas, and the Chiefs, an already-popular team burnished this year by tight end Travis Kelce’s romantic relationship with pop star Taylor Swift.
StubHub, meanwhile, has seen Super Bowl ticket buyers from all 50 states and 16 countries beyond the U.S.
No Accident
On top of the Las Vegas–specific market factors, the higher overall pricing and smaller volatility for Super Bowl tickets is in part an outgrowth of several years of increasing market power by On Location. Since Endeavor acquired a majority stake in the company in early 2020, On Location has ramped up its presence at the Super Bowl, creating essentially what is now a managed market.
While tickets are still available through both independent and NFL partner outlets such as StubHub, the NFL through On Location oversees much of the ticket flow for the event through a controlled distribution of tickets, and very little of the overall inventory hits the primary market at face value. The Chiefs and 49ers each received about 17% of available tickets to distribute as they see fit, the host market Raiders received roughly 5%, and the other 29 teams received about 1% each. The league, with the aid of On Location, controls the rest.
On Location has further strengthened its position by frequently bundling Super Bowl tickets with a variety of fan experiences, such as NFL legend meet-and-greets, tailgate parties, exclusive merchandise, and travel accommodations.
“Every year we get better. Whether it’s offering new experiences, what’s unique to the [host] market, what we’re working together with the league on, switching some of our credentials to digital for more last-minute business … that’s all driving our success,” says Jernigan.
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