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StubHub sees last-minute trade for Super Bowl tickets

The New England Patriots claimed a record-equalling sixth Super Bowl title on Sunday evening, with tickets for the game against the Los Angeles Rams continuing to do brisk business on the secondary market up to the day of the event.

Super Bowl LIII was held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and drew an official attendance of 70,081 as the Patriots tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers on six titles with a 13-3 triumph over the Rams.

StubHub serves as the authorised ticket resale marketplace of American football league the NFL and three hours ahead of kick-off at 6.30pm ET announced that demand remained steady, maintaining the spike in sales over the past five days.

StubHub sold tickets until 60 minutes after kickoff, while supplies lasted, and yesterday afternoon said there were 300 tickets onsite with prices starting at $3,000 (£2,298/€2,621). The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper noted that there were at least eight seats remaining at Mercedes-Benz Stadium minutes before kickoff, priced from $3,500.

Tickets for the upper corners of the stadium were available for a get-in price of $3,000, with the least expensive ticket sold registering at $2,000. The most expensive ticket sold via StubHub was $20,000 for a place in the SunTrust Club. Customers from 18 different countries purchased tickets via the site.

Massachusetts, the home of the Patriots purchased the most tickets with 18% of all tickets sold, followed by California, the home state of the Rams, at 12%. Atlanta’s home state of Georgia came in at 10%, with the top five rounded out by Florida and New York at 5% apiece.

In preparation for getting tickets into fans’ hands, StubHub was onsite in Atlanta for a full week with over 100 staff. The company spent the last few days before the game getting the physical tickets in hand from sellers, then validating each ticket through a series of security measures and mapping it to its buyer. On Saturday at 10am ET, StubHub opened its doors to buyers and the first tickets were picked up.

Broadcaster NBC LA said the get-in price was around $3,500 a fortnight before the Super Bowl, with the average ticket selling for $5,555. On January 20, it was decided that the Patriots would face the Rams, but ticket prices on the secondary market actually dropped over 12% after the two respective conference championships.

At that point, the get-in price reduced to below $3,000 with over 4,000 tickets available on the secondary market. “For the Patriots, the thought was it was winning fatigue,” Chris Leyden, communications manager for Seat Geek, told NBC LA ahead of the game. “The Patriots are playing in their ninth Super Bowl in the last two decades. There’s some though that people in Boston would be sick of going to the Super Bowl.

“As for the Rams, they were unknown. The team has only been in the LA market for three years, how long have they built up a fan base? Also, travel is further. Our research shows that sometimes winter cities like to travel to the Super Bowl as an escape to warmer weather, but that’s not the case in LA. If you’re going just for the game, rather than a nice little vacation, I think those factors have all worked against the Rams.”

Image: NFL