So you need to go to the Super Bowl this weekend. Even for non-football followers, this 12 months’s spectacle {of professional} sports activities and over-the-top leisure — in Las Vegas, no much less — might be onerous to withstand.
Some of the greatest gamers of their technology, like Nick Bosa, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, will take the subject when the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs meet on Sunday. Off the subject, the metropolis shall be filled with celebrities, together with Usher (the halftime headliner), Luke Combs, Adele and Wu-Tang Clan — and people are simply the weekend’s scheduled performers. So many individuals are anticipated this weekend, confirmed Monika Bertaki, the chief advertising officer at Harry Reid International Airport, that no airplane parking spots can be found at Harry Reid, North Las Vegas or Henderson Executive Airports. It’s going to be a celebration.
If you possibly can afford to go, that’s. Considering the price of flights, lodging, assorted journey bills and entry into Allegiant Stadium, Super Bowl LVIII could also be the most costly to attend.
As of Tuesday, individuals had been paying a median of $8,776 per ticket, in line with information from the ticket market Vivid Seats, 1000’s of {dollars} greater than most up-to-date Super Bowl matchups. Driving the demand are quite a lot of components, together with the risk of Taylor Swift attending, the stadium being certainly one of the National Football League’s smallest when it comes to capability and Las Vegas internet hosting its first Super Bowl.
“Prices go up and down for Super Bowls, but they are going to be historically high for this one,” stated Malcolm Robinson, proprietor of Houston Ticket Brokers, the place tickets are going for greater than $8,000.
For this 12 months’s occasion, he stated, “billionaires are going to have trouble parking their planes.”
Want to affix this crowd? Let’s run the numbers.
Say you reside in Houston and need to arrive in Las Vegas on Saturday, Feb. 10, the day earlier than the huge recreation, and depart on Monday, Feb. 12, the subsequent day. You’re not alone; carriers like American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have added home flights to fulfill demand. That hasn’t helped the price: Airfare remains to be considerably costlier than a standard weekend to Las Vegas — about 112 % increased in contrast with the similar weekend final 12 months, in line with information from Priceline, a web-based journey company.
On Tuesday, a web-based search confirmed that certainly one of the least expensive flights obtainable from Houston was a nondirect, round-trip ticket from George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Spirit Airlines to Harry Reid Airport, for $563 (together with taxes, however with out baggage).
Though Las Vegas doesn’t lack lodge rooms — it has some 151,000, in line with the metropolis’s Convention and Visitors Authority — bookings and costs have additionally surged. The reserving web site Trivago stories a 140 % enhance in Vegas lodge costs for February, in contrast with the similar month final 12 months, and Priceline estimates the common price of 1 night time in a Vegas lodge room is $376 — which might come out to $752.
However, a reserving discovered on Tuesday for 2 nights in an Extended Stay America lodge room, almost two and half miles from the Las Vegas Strip, began at $498.
Using a ride-hailing app to get to and from the airports in Houston and Las Vegas may price about $40 every approach, in line with the Uber estimator device. Realistically, these costs shall be surging in Las Vegas, so spherical as much as $200 (should you’re fortunate). And you’ll must get out of your Extended Stay room to the stadium and again, throughout peak surge — that might deliver all floor transportation prices to a minimal of round $300.
You should eat, and a few native web sites estimate — primarily based on a visitor-profile report compiled in 2021 for the Convention and Visitors Authority — that vacationers pay about $125 per day to eat at midrange eating places, so tack on an extra $250.
Now, about that ticket …
Add it up, and your recreation day weekend is clocking in at $1,611 for certainly one of the least expensive journey itineraries potential. And this excludes alcohol, playing and the precise recreation ticket.
Mr. Robinson, of Houston Ticket Brokers, stated that a part of the purpose for the excessive ticket costs is how the stadium’s seating is organized. “Allegiant Stadium has a lot of V.I.P. areas — tables on the field, suites, club areas — so they all fetch a premium, and that makes it a little different from other Super Bowls. Cheap seats just weren’t created in that stadium.”
And the attraction of the host metropolis itself may additionally think about the surging ticket prices.
“People often travel to Vegas for the Super Bowl — even when the Super Bowl isn’t in Vegas — just to gamble and watch the game,” he stated. “Las Vegas is a destination for the Super Bowl every year.”
Other ticket sellers are seeing an analogous leap. A Tuesday search on Ticketmaster for the least expensive single ticket turned up a $6,800 seat. Don’t neglect the charges — after a humble $3 processing payment and a unprecedented $1,445 service payment, the whole worth is $8,248.
On TickPick, a web-based ticket market, the common buy worth of Super Bowl tickets listed is $9,835 after charges, 70 % dearer than final 12 months’s common worth of $5,795. The largest buy to date on TickPick was for six tickets (in Section 336) for $14,810 every, or $88,860 whole, in line with the firm.
“We expect transaction activity to increase further as the week progresses,” stated Brett Goldberg, co-chief government at TickPick. “When you bring one of the biggest sporting events in the U.S. to one of its most iconic cities, it’s ultimately going to have an impact on ticket prices regardless of who is playing.”
Add it up, and no matter how a lot cash a traveler saves staying off the Strip, a two-night journey to Super Bowl LVIII may price a minimal of about $9,859 for one individual. Something to chew on as you microwave that popcorn and sit again in your sofa to look at the huge recreation — from dwelling.
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