To get tickets for the Super Bowl at face value, you either have to be a season ticket holder for one of the teams playing, be a corporate sponsor, know someone high up in the NFL or win a lottery that can be entered by sending entry forms via registered mail. Normally, the latter seems like a good idea. Even if someone has to spend $500 on mailing entries, if they send in a winning entry, they are guaranteed to make it back and then some. Super Bowl tickets have always been considered the “Golden Ticket” to ticket brokers. However, this year, things aren’t so golden

Last year, at Super Bowl XLII in Arizona, the the price for nosebleeds or “get in’s” was about $2500/ticket. With face value of around $800/ticket, this meant a good profit for brokers. However, this year, tickets are down to $1500, not quite such a great pay day. Why is this? Several factors. The most obvious reason is the economy. Who can justify $5000/pair for a 3 hour football game when they aren’t sure they are going to still have a job next week or when they’ve lost 40% of their wealth in the stock market?

Another reason for the low prices this year is the matchup. The Steelers have a huge fan base, but they were just in the Super Bowl 3 years ago so their fans probably don’t feel like it’s as special or rare as other teams fans would. And the Arizona Cardinals have probably the worst fan base in all of the NFL, for good reason: They have had a losing record for what seems like an eternity. No one likes to root for a loser. Before the new stadium opened a few years ago, would only sell about 50% of their seats. Sure, they have fans now that they’re winning, but most of them are “fair weather johnsons” who aren’t big enough fans to fly to Florida and spend the big bucks.

So, for those of you ticket brokers cursing that you didn’t get Super Bowl tickets this year, don’t feel so bad, you probably made more money selling Hannah Montana tickets than you would’ve with this year’s Super Bowl tickets.