Super Bowl tickets offer pocket protection for shrewd investors

At least one ticket to the Super Bowl rematch between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots has sold for $11,883, according to the National Football League's official resale site. The price is the highest so far for the Feb. 5 game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for a secondary-market ticket sold on the NFL Ticket Exchange, according to data released by the company. The exchange didn't disclose how many tickets have been sold. The average price for Super Bowl tickets sold on the website is $4,183, about the same as for last year's championship game between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, when sales averaged $4,140, according to a statement from the exchange. Fans from Australia, Belgium and Guam are among the buyers. The average asking price on the secondary market is $4,054, with the most expensive listing at $15,343 for a seat in Row 3, Section 113, according to TiqIQ, an event ticket aggregator that tracks listings from StubHub, EBay, TicketNetwork and TicketsNow. The tickets have a face value of $800 to $1,200, TiqIQ said, up from $600 to $1,200 last year. Most tickets are being sold in “zones,” or large areas of similar seats, so it's often difficult to determine exact individual seat prices, said Chris Matcovich, a spokesman for TiqIQ. As the game approaches, ticket prices may rise for individual buyers due to the lack of tickets available. ‘So Corporate' “The Super Bowl has become so corporate, a lot of these tickets don't go to actual fans of the teams,” Matcovich said. “There are only so many tickets available on the secondary market.” There are 6,900 ticket listings from 15 different ticket companies, according to FanSnap.com, a Palo Alto, California- based Internet search engine that compares prices at the 24 ticket-reselling websites that have seats. Prices may also rise as New York fans seek to witness a repeat of the 2008 championship, when the Giants upset the undefeated Patriots 17-14 as 12-point underdogs. “Giants fans are pretty rabid and they travel pretty well,” Matcovich said. “So I wouldn't be surprised that people will be willing to pay a high price to go to Indianapolis. If you have income to spend, people are willing to spend anything to go to this game.” Along with individual seats, a suite with at least 25 tickets is currently being offered for $800,000, Matcovich said. Patriots Picked The Patriots, winners of 10 straight games, are favored by three points against the Giants this year, oddsmakers said. The Giants also were underdogs in their past two wins this postseason, including Sunday's 20-17 overtime victory over the 49ers in San Francisco for the National Football Conference championship. The oddsmakers' favorite has won the Super Bowl 73 percent of the time, with victories in 33 of 45 games, according to RJ Bell, founder of Las Vegas-based handicapping information website Pregame.com. This year's three-point spread indicates the Patriots have a 59 percent chance to win, said Bell, who estimates that more than $10 billion will be wagered on the Super Bowl worldwide. New England, which won Super Bowl titles after the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons, is 15-3 this season after Sunday's 23- 20 win against the Baltimore Ravens in the American Football Conference championship game. The Giants, who also have three Super Bowl victories, have a 12-7 record, winning six of their last seven games, including five in a row. --Bloomberg News--