Super Bowl Tickets for $2,800—Act Now!

Super Bowl XLVII takes place on Sunday, and when kickoff happens, fans at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans will see the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers vie for gridiron supremacy. The teams are coached by brothers John and Jim Harbaugh, respectively, giving the game a dramatic side order of sibling rivalry.

The average secondary market ticket price is $2,801.50, according to Chris Matcovich, senior director of data and communications for TiqIQ (http://www.tiqiq.com), a ticket price aggregator that draws data from such sellers as StubHub, Ticket Network and eBay. Just two days ago, the average price was $2956.89, and yesterday it was $2,795.08. Indeed, the only consistent thing about the ticket price is its volatility.

Anyone who was able to secure a ticket at face value paid between $850 and $1,250 for the privilege, so a secondary market price that more than doubles its cost may seem steep. However, Matcovich said in an e-mail that today's price represents a drop of almost 30 percent from the average price of $3,981.71 that Super Bowl tickets commanded last year.

A few factors are driving this year's relatively low price. For one thing, Matcovich said that last year's faceoff between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots simply had more going for it in terms of fan interest, thanks to the contentious rivalry between the teams. The Ravens and the 49ers, on the other hand, provide no such drama.

"This is a less desirable match up for most," he said. "Giants vs. Patriots has a much bigger storyline, in terms of teams and major metropolitan areas."

Another factor driving down prices is the distance. "New Orleans is much farther for the teams' fan bases this season then Indianapolis was for those last year," Matcovich said. "For instance, New Yorkers could drive 14 hours to Indianapolis. The shortest travel time for a team this year is Baltimore, at 22 hours."

He also noted that the ticket price had dropped more than 12 percent just since January 21. But this, he said, is simply the nature of the beast.

"Prices tend to drop the week of the game normally," he said. "So since prices started out lower than last year, we will most likely see the final numbers drop well below those of last year's game."

He added that brokers and other secondary market sellers routinely slash ticket prices as the event date draws near, since they can't afford to see the tickets they paid for going to waste. "Brokers and sellers alike can't and won't 'eat' tickets, and they become more negotiable on price as the Super Bowl comes closer."

Although the game is now only four days away, he believes that there's still enough time to see prices come down even more. "There should be a significant drop between now and the game," he said. "I think the overall average price will hit between $2,300 and $2,500."

There are currently more than 5,100 Super Bowl tickets still available.