Why getting a Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl ticket at face value is almost impossible: Here’s where the tickets go

If you’ve ever tried to get a ticket to the Super Bowl, you may have noticed that it’s almost impossible unless you’re willing to fork over thousands of dollars. 

The average ticket price for Super Bowl LIX is currently sitting at about $8,076, and that’s just to get yourself into the game. If you want to go with a friend or a family member, you’ll need to go ahead and tack on another $8,000 per person. If you’re looking for the cheapest ticket available, that will set you back about $5,000 on the secondary market right now. 

The cheapest way to get into the game is to get your hands on a ticket that costs face value. For Super Bowl LIX, the prices range from $950 to $7,500. That’s still a lot of money, but going to a Super Bowl for $950 doesn’t sting as much as handing over $8,000 for a ticket on the secondary market. 

If you’re hoping to score a face value ticket to the Super Bowl, you might want to give up now, because they’re almost impossible to get your hands on. 

The reason tickets are so hard to get is because the Super Bowl is the one game where the NFL accounts for every single ticket. There are no tickets sold to the general public. The league distributes tickets to all 32 teams and then keeps a cut for itself.  

For this year’s game, the Eagles and Chiefs will each get 17.5% of the tickets — or 35% of the total. This year, that amounts to roughly 12,600 tickets for each team since the Caesars Super Dome will seat roughly 72,000 for the game (Note: The seating capacity is 73,208 for Saints games, but the capacity at the Super Dome is generally lower for the Super Bowl. The attendance at the last Super Bowl in New Orleans was 71,024, so we’re going to use 72,000 as our unofficial number to estimate each team’s ticket allotment). 

The tickets for the Eagles and Chiefs will go to players, front office members and even some season-ticket holders, who will all pay face value 

Although each team will be getting roughly 12,600 tickets to the game this year, most of those don’t end up in the hands of fans, because the team generally uses of a large portion of its tickets. Each player on the roster is given two complimentary tickets and then has the option to buy up to 13 more at face value, which means each player has access to up to 15 tickets. If all 53 players use up their allotment, that’s 795 tickets out of circulation, and you still have to give tickets to the coaching staff, front office and other team employees. 

That being said, the NFL does require that each team set aside at least 35% of its allotment for fans, so the Chiefs and Eagles will each be handing out at least 4,400 tickets to their season-ticket holders (Most teams hold a lottery and then once the winners are announced, the fans that win have the option to buy tickets at face value). 

As for the rest of the Super Bowl tickets, the 30 teams that aren’t playing in the game also get their cut. The host team gets the biggest allotment at 5% (That’s 3,600 tickets this year), which means the Saints might have some extra tickets. The NFL actually requires the host team to set aside 10% of its allotment for fans, so that’s an extra 360 tickets that go to fans. 

The other 29 teams then each get a 1.2% share of the tickets (That’s 860 tickets this year). The 29 teams are encouraged to hand out 10% of their allotment to their fans, but it’s not a requirement. If you’re scoring at home, that means that fans will only have a chance to buy about 11,650 tickets at face value (Although that number can go higher if teams offer more than 10% of their allotment to fans).

The rest of the Super Bowl tickets go to the NFL with league in control of 25.2% of the total allotment, which will be about 18,150 tickets this year. Of that total, 2,500 will be used by the league office and then the NFL generally gives about 750 tickets to the Super Bowl Host Committee. Of the remaining tickets, a large number goes to On Location Experiences, which is the NFL’s official hospitality provider. The league generally let’s that company handle roughly 10,000 tickets. 

Here’s the full percentage breakdown for where the tickets go: 

• League office: 25.2% of tickets
• Eagles: 17.5% to participating team
• Chiefs: 17.5% to participating team
• Saints: 5% to host team
• 29 other teams: 1.2% each (34.8%)

If you get your hands on a ticket at face value, consider yourself lucky, because there are plenty of people who paid an arm and a leg to be there.