Michael Mann 
New York
CNN
—
The Kansas City Chiefs might make history this weekend, but ticket prices aren’t reflecting that.
The cheapest ticket for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans has fallen below $4,000 on the secondary market, according to reseller TickPick, marking a 30% decline over the past week — and more than 50% cheaper compared to last year’s record-breaking Super Bowl.
The Chiefs, who face the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, are hoping to be the first team to win three successive Super Bowl rings. Despite that historic feat on the line, fans apparently aren’t excited to splash out big bucks.
There are a few potential reasons related to this year’s host city — and perhaps a slight dose of Chiefs fatigue.
Last year’s matchup between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers was the most expensive Super Bowl on record, partly because it took place in the party mecca of Las Vegas for the first time. However, New Orleans “doesn’t have the same appeal” as Las Vegas, TickPick CEO Brett Goldberg said.
New Orleans’ larger seating capacity is pushing prices lower as well, Goldberg said. The Caesars Superdome holds about 74,000 seats, whereas the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas holds around 65,000 seats. The host city is also still reeling from a terrorist attack last month when a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd and opened fire, killing 14 people and injuring at least 35.
Then there’s the matchup itself. Football fans are bored by a third straight Chiefs Super Bowl bid, resulting in TickPick “seeing less interest from fans looking to attend,” Goldberg told CNN. “Had the Detroit Lions, Washington Commanders or Buffalo Bills made it this far, it’d be a much different story as it relates to current prices.”
Although the Super Bowl tickets aren’t setting records, the highly anticipated TV advertisements are. Fox has sold at least 10 of its Super Bowl commercial spots for upward of $8 million each, a person with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed to CNN. The network originally sought about $7 million for 30 seconds of ad time during the game.
The $8 million deals were done relatively recently, the source said, after some expected sponsors sought to give up their ad time slots.
Super Bowl LIX’s kickoff slated for 6:30 pm ET on Sunday. The game airs on Fox and, in a first, is streaming for free on Tubi.
