Super Bowl, Lucas Oil Stadium

How much are tickets going for? Well a crappy seat in an end zone corner has a face value of $900…But on an eBay auction two tickets in this section (234) are currently offered at $3700 with 1.5 hours to go…Scalpers are trying for $5000 for similar seats…

That’s a lot of money for the privilege of sitting in the Lucas Oil Stadium…

While Lucas Oil is based in Corona, California, On February 28, 2006, Indiana native Forrest Lucas announced that his company, Lucas Oil, purchased the naming rights for $121 million over 20 years.

I was in Lucas Oil Stadium for a college football game. It cost me nothing because I am an emeritus from one of the colleges whose team played there. I think the stadium is for wimps–it has comfortable chair seats. I grew up sitting on bleachers to watch football and basketball games and I still believe that real men sit on bleachers to watch sporting events. It is better if the bleachers are made of wood with real splinters.

I’ll be taking a swing dance class with my wife while the game is on [cue sound of whip cracking].

Wow, $900 for a crappy seat at the Super Bowl, or $5,000 for a scalped crappy seat at the Super Bowl. Either seems kind of steep to me. Makes my sister’s enthusiasm for professional wrestling seem cheap by comparison. A few years ago, she bought a “travel package” for WWE WrestleMania weekend (WrestleMania is like the Super Bowl of professional wrestling), which included two decent lower bowl tickets, two tickets to the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony the night before WrestleMania, meet and greet/photo opportunities for the vast majority of the roster (including some of the past and current at the time Hall of Famers) after the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, a catered breakfast the day of WrestleMania with much of the roster present for that as well, and three nights in a hotel. Total cost for all this: about $1500. She came home with a lot of nice souvenirs and plenty of pictures and autographs and got to mingle with some of the biggest names in professional wrestling. I thought that was an awful lot of money, but it looks like a steal compared to Super Bowl tickets.

This is the premier event of the NFL season. It should cost a lot.

I saw Bob Costas interview Roger Goodell last night, and they discussed this question. Goodell said that tickets were set aside for regular forks at $500 each. He also said that many of the tickets scalped for the game were from regular guys that sold them. He was unhappy that happened, but he also said there was nothing he could do about it.

But that’s just one game. Even worse are season ticket prices. First you buy the PSL for $20,000 each, then you buy the tickets at about $250 each. If someone buys 4 seats, the up front cost is $100,000 for the first season. I have the best seat in the house. My Man Cave has a 56" HDTV with a 5:1 AV system - and it’s heated and air conditioned. I’ve been to NFL preseason and regular season games, and the seats any of us can expect to buy are so far from the action (end zone, nose bleed) that you just can’t see the action. Mr Goodell begs to disagree, but I don’t need a bunch of rowdy drunks falling all over me on a 20 degree day with a 20 MPH wind in a seat where I only get a fair view of half the field goal attempts and touchdown tries.

Snarl.

I remember living in Denver when the Broncos were fighting for their first ever play-off birth…The last game of the season, playing the Oakland Raiders for the AFC-W title…Kenny Stabler the Oakland quarterback, the Broncos fate resting on the “Orange Crush” defense…The heavily hyped game was sold out of course…My wife and I drove down to the stadium on game day, and, as the opening kick-off brought the crowd to its feet, I was able to purchase 2 tickets at face value from a would-be scalper for $36 each…The Broncos beat the Raiders in an exciting game…

Today, that ticket would cost thousands…Not my money…Paying that kind of money to watch a sports event is INSANE…

I recently found myself watching some television show about weddings and wedding parties and wedding dresses and thought that was the most outrageous example of self indulgence but apparently men and sporting events might surpass the women’s weddings. There are a great many more wealthy people than I ever imagined it seems. Surely no one would spend more than one days income to see a ball game, would they?

“Surely no one would spend more than one days income to see a ball game, would they?”

Apparently some folks would. A lot of the sales are a business expense, but there are regular guys that spring for the PSL and 20 tickets.

It’s also an international event - I imagine some of those seats went to folks from elsewhere, lots of money to throw around.

How 'bout those car commercials? The Silverado ad is hilarious. I just love the raining frogs at the end. The Sonic ad is also a lot of fun. It’s enough to make you buy the products! Apocalypse Howl!

No, it’s not. No knock on the product, but I never bought Budweiser, despite their decades of outstanding ads at the Superbowl.

I have recommended that my daughter test drive a Sonic, though, when she looks at a new car in 6 to 12 months. Did you guys enjoy the commercials? Did Chevy overstep the boundaries of good taste when we discovered that their one fiend had the poor judgement to drive a Ford?

The only issue I had with the Silverado commercial is that I don’t think GM thought that one through very well. Ford did send GM and NBC a “cease and desist” order in an attempt to keep the ad from airing during the Super Bowl, which did not change anything except give GM more press for that move. The reason I think they should have given more thought before knocking Ford in a Super Bowl commercial is because they may have set themselves up for a retaliation ad. One idea is an apocalypse in the form of a flood, with a Ford truck and its owner atop a mountain, looking down at a Chevy and its owner falling victim to the flood, with the Chevy owner frantically trying to empty the water from the bed and cab of his truck with a bucket. The ad could end with a banner reading “no bailout needed when you drive a Ford” or something of that nature. Had they attacked Chrysler instead, that would have been one less thing for them to worry about with potential retaliation.

“Circuitsmith”… You do well by your wife. You can always replay the Superbowl, a thousand times. But to learn to dance with your wife is special. My wife and I have ballroom danced for 30 plus years, and one of the best gifts a man or woman can give to their spouse, is a willingness to dance with them if they desire.

Any negative ad creates an opportunity for retaliation. I like your bailout analogy. You’ve got a lot of potential as an ad guru, mark9207.

My favorite was the Acura NSX ad. Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno were terrific. I guess it’s too late to order SN001 by now.

Leno and Seinfeld should both go in on #1, then auction it off for charity - that would be a BIG win for Acura, they need all the good publicity they can get!

I’d NEVER pay that much…Sorry…but I other priorities with my hard earned money.

I watched every minute of the game sitting on my favorite chair with my favorite people (family). Had a GREAT time…but I ate too much.

I do go to sporting events…But I just won’t pay that much money. Usually take in a couple of Celtics games a year. Also go to 5-10 local College BB and Football games. I can go to ALL those games with my wife and son (and maybe my oldest son if he’s back in town) for the price of ONE ticket at the superbowl. This includes parking and refreshments. I am splurging this year…and going to the Bean Pot finals on Monday. Those seats cost me $50/each.

Most fun we’ve had - going to college BB games. Least fun? Going to one (and only one) NFL game.

Most fun we’ve had - going to college BB games.

When my oldest son was looking for colleges to go to…One on his list was Syracuse University (my alma mater). After taking my son to several Celtic games…and when we visited SU we decided to take in a Big East game. We had planned this visit months in advanced. SU was playing Georgetown. It was an almost sold out crowd of over 33,000 fans…that’s almost double the TD Bank Garden where the Celtics play. My son was blown away.

IMHO…college games are far far far better then ANY pro game I’ve ever been to.

Ohio state football fans get charged quite a bit for a homr game. while their spring game tickets range from $18 to $57, the average ticket price is about $140. Double that for the cheap seats at the “big rivalry game” with Michigan($276) with the “club level” being $1049 per ticket, and the site I’m checking prices on will not let you buy single tickets, just 2 or 4 depending on the section.

http://www.vividseats.com/ncaaf/ohio-state-buckeyes-tickets.html