How do you get Super Bowl tickets?

Answer 1

Super Bowl tickets are available through multiple channels including: the NFL Super Bowl ticket lottery, season ticket holder team lottery, independent ticket brokers, online auction sites maintained by both brokers and entities that facilitate private sellers. Let's take each individually.

1) The NFL Super Bowl ticket lottery: (When you must act - approximately 8 months to a year prior to the game). Each year the league invites fans to send a free entry into the league's ticket lottery. Entries must follow the NFL's guidelines exactly. Requests for the random drawing are accepted between February 1st and June 1st of each year preceding the game and all Super Bowl ticket requests must be sent via certified or registered mail to:

Super Bowl Random Drawing

P.O. Box 49140

Strongsville, OH 44149-0140

Applicants must put their name and address on their request and send only one per household---duplicate requests are discarded. Over the summer acknowledgements are sent out. A drawing is held in October. Approximately 1% of the seats are allocated in this manner. Everyone who entered the Super Bowl ticket lottery will be notified at that time of the drawing. This is not a drawing for free tickets but for rights to purchase tickets at face value. You are not required to make any purchase to be eligible for this drawing.

There is a separate random drawing for Handicap Accessible Seating. The deadline to enter is September 1. Entries should be sent to:

Super Bowl ADA Random Drawing

National Football League

280 Park Ave.

New York, NY 10017

2) Becoming a season ticket holder to an NFL team increases your odds significantly. That's because the NFL allocates 75% of the game tickets to the 32 NFL franchises. (When you must act: about eight to ten days prior to the game if you are already a season ticket holder and have been selected.) The teams conduct their own random lottery to grant purchase rights to season ticket holders. Teams will notify selected season ticket holders generally prior to the conclusion of the annual playoff race. If their team is still contending, the may send a letter informing the season ticket holder that they will have purchase rights IF the team actually advances to the game. 17.5% of tickets go to each of the two teams that will compete in the Super Bowl. 1.2% go to each of the remaining 30 teams except for the host city team that receives 5%. In 2010, the Miami Dolphins will receive the extra host city allocation.

3) Purchase tickets through a professional broker. Ticket resellers come in all shapes and sizes. Some operate from traditional storefront or "brick and mortar" locations. Some operate only online. Some are members of the industry trade group the National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB). Some are not licensed and may not adhere to accepted industry standards. (When you must act: Generally anytime up to the day before kickoff although some brokers execute sales in real time on game day). Among the ways professional brokers will secure tickets is by purchasing them from season ticket holders who do not intend to use their seats. In recent years, some NFL interests have tried to restrict broker access to season ticket holders or even subpoena customer lists, possibly in an effort to gain tighter control of the resale ticket market which is brisk and profitable. Some of these efforts may be inspired by the NFL's recent agreement with TicketMaster and TicketMaster's resale subsidiary TicketsNow. Ticketmaster paid a large rights fee to the NFL to become the official "fan to fan" exchange of the NFL. Stubhub has a similar agreement with Major League Baseball. A reseller that promotes itself as the "official partner" of the league has only a marketing advantage and may or not be the optimum company for fans to buy or sell seats. Consumers who wish to learn more about this issue and find licensed brokers in their area should contact the NATB.

4) Purchase tickets from a private party - EBay is a common gathering area for private sellers as is StubHub, CraigsList and Ticketmaster. (When you must act: Depending on the seller, almost anytime right up to kickoff). Prices will fluctuate from anywhere from double to ten times face value or more depending on the time of year, market demand, teams involved in the game, and other factors. While sites have improved efforts to monitor fraudulent sales of nonexistent or counterfeit tickets, the buyer beware maxim still applies. Offline sales involving face to face interaction may or may not be safer. Perhaps the best private party transaction for a Super Bowl ticket would be to negotiate with a lottery selected season ticket holder the legal transfer of his or her face value purchase rights to you. Generally, the actual purchase of such tickets must be made in person at the team box office by the legal rights holder. The most common form of offline private party sales happen on game day from parking lot scalpers. While this form of transaction can be unsavory and even dangerous, some cities including Phoenix (site of Super Bowl XLII) have progressive laws that control and legalize "scalping". By confining the activity to a designated area on game days, law enforcement officials can easily monitor activity. This form of free market exchange actually may help level the playing field among all resellers in a manner that benefits fans and by keeping resale prices to otherwise "sold out" events more competitive.

Jeffrey Fekete, author of Making The Big Game: Tales of an Accidental Spectator (www. MakingTheBigGame.com) contributed this answer. In 2008, he attended the Super Bowl via lottery rights transfer and an independent broker purchase.