by So you want to go to the Super Bowl this weekend. Even for non-football fans, this year’s spectacle of professional sports and top-notch entertainment (in Las Vegas, no less) might be hard to resist.
Some of the best players of their generation, including Nick Bosa, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, will take the field when the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs meet on Sunday. Off the field, the town will be packed with celebrities, including Usher (the halftime headliner), lucas combs, Adela and Wu Tang Clan – and those are just the artists scheduled for the weekend. So many people are expected this weekend, confirmed Monika Bertaki, marketing director at Harry Reid International Airport, that there are no parking spaces available at Harry Reid, North Las Vegas or Henderson Executive airports. It’s going to be a party.
If you can afford to go, that is. Taking into account the cost of flights, accommodations, various travel expenses and admission to Allegiant Stadium, Super Bowl LVIII may be the most expensive to attend.
Until Tuesday, people paid an average of $8,776 per ticketaccording to ticket market data vivid seats, thousands of dollars more than the most recent Super Bowl matchups. The demand is driven by a number of factors, including the possibility that Taylor Swift attendingthe stadium being one of the smallest in the National Football League in terms of capacity and Las Vegas hosting its first Super Bowl.
“Prices go up and down at Super Bowls, but this one is going to be historically high,” said Malcolm Robinson, owner of Houston Ticket Brokerswhere tickets cost more than $8,000.
For this year’s event, he said, “the billionaires are going to have trouble parking their planes.”
Do you want to join this crowd? Let’s do the numbers.
Let’s say you live in Houston and want to arrive in Las Vegas on Saturday, February 10, the day before the big game, and leave on Monday, February 12, the next day. You’re not alone; carriers like american airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have added domestic flights to meet demand. That hasn’t helped the cost: Airfare is still significantly more expensive than a typical weekend to Las Vegas — about 112 percent more compared to the same weekend last year, according to data from Priceline, a online travel agency.
On Tuesday, an online search showed that one of the cheapest flights available from Houston was a round-trip non-stop ticket from George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Spirit Airlines to Harry Reid Airport, for $563 (including taxes, but without luggage).
Although Las Vegas has no shortage of hotel rooms, it does have a few 151,000, according to the city’s Convention and Visitors Authority: Reservations and prices have also increased. The reservation website trivago reports a 140 percent increase in Las Vegas hotel prices in February, compared to the same month last year, and Price line estimates that the average cost of a night in a hotel room in Las Vegas is $376, which would be equivalent to $752.
However, a reservation found Tuesday for two nights in an Extended Stay America hotel room, nearly two and a half miles from the Las Vegas Strip, started at $498.
Using a ride-hailing app to get to and from the Houston and Las Vegas airports could cost about $40 each way, according to the uber estimator tool. Realistically, those prices will increase in Las Vegas, so round up to $200 (if you’re lucky). And you’ll have to get from your extended-stay room to the stadium and back, during peak surge, which could bring all ground transportation costs to a minimum of around $300.
You have to eat, and some local websites estimate, based on a visitor profile report prepared in 2021 for the Convention and Visitors Authority, that tourists pay around $125 per day to eat at mid-range restaurants, so add an extra $250.
Now, about that ticket…
Add it up and game day weekend will cost $1,611 for one of the cheapest travel itineraries possible. And this excludes alcohol, gambling and entry into gambling.
Mr. Robinson, of Houston Ticket Brokers, said part of the reason for the high ticket prices is the way the stadium seating is arranged. “Allegiant Stadium has a lot of VIP areas (on-field tables, suites, club areas), so they’re all priced at a premium, and that makes it a little different from other Super Bowls. “There just weren’t cheap seats created in that stadium.”
And the attractiveness of the host city itself can also influence the increase in ticket costs.
“People often travel to Las Vegas to attend the Super Bowl, even when the Super Bowl is not in Las Vegas, just to bet and watch the game,” he said. “Las Vegas is a destination for the Super Bowl every year.”
Other ticket sellers are seeing a similar jump. A search of Tuesday in Ticketmaster for the cheapest single ticket he got a seat for $6,800. Don’t forget the fees: After a humble $3 processing fee and an extraordinary $1,445 service fee, the total price is $8,248.
In TIC Tac, an online ticket marketplace, the average purchase price of listed Super Bowl tickets is $9,835 after fees, 70 percent more expensive than last year’s average price of $5,795. The largest purchase so far on TickPick was six tickets (in Section 336) for $14,810 each, or $88,860 total, according to the company.
“We expect trading activity to increase further as the week progresses,” said Brett Goldberg, co-CEO of TickPick. “When you bring one of America’s biggest sporting events to one of its most iconic cities, it will ultimately have an impact on ticket prices, regardless of who’s playing.”
Added up, regardless of how much money a traveler saves by staying off the Strip, a two-night trip to Super Bowl LVIII could cost a minimum of about $9,859 for one person. Something to chew while you microwave popcorn and sit on the couch watching the big game, from home.
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