Super Bowl tickets: The price is...yikes!

Ross D. Franklin, Associated Press

Super Bowl game tickets and the University of Phoenix Stadium where the New England Patriots will play the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII on Sunday.

Last update: January 28, 2008 - 6:27 PM

Tickets for this Sunday's Super Bowl are drawing record selling prices nationally for scalpers, various ticket reselling outlets are reporting.

Here in the Twin Cities, Ticket King is listing single seats priced from $3,220 to $19,751. Yes, that is for one ticket.

This is the first Super Bowl in which reselling tickets is a legal transaction in Minnesota. The Legislature lifted the criminal aspect to scalping last summer.

But Mike Nowakowski, co-owner of Ticket King in Minneapolis, said the change in the law has had no affect on the price of Super Bowl tickets.

As for this year's market, he said, "Minnesota is not a hotbed for Super Bowl tickets unless the Vikings or the Packers are in it."

Right now, "the market is about $3,000 to get in the door," he added, and that's very similar to years past." For those on the fence about when to jump in and get a ticket or two, Nowakowski said, "My gut tells me the price is gonna come down on this ticket just because of the amount of seats flowing around."

This year's game is at the University of Phoenix Stadium, the 63,400-seat home of the Arizona Cardinals. Its seating is being expanded to about 75,000 for the Super Bowl.

Face value for tickets to this year's game ranges from $600 to $700. For the first Super Bowl, tickets ranged from $6 to $12.

PAUL WALSH

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