NFL fans are steadily buying tickets for Super Bowl XLV, with one fan spending as much as $70,000 for a suite inside Cowboys Stadium.
While Super Bowl XLV is a sellout, you can still buy tickets from various brokers across North Texas and online.
Locally, tickets for the Feb. 6 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers have an average price range between $2,100 and $8,000, according to Ram Silverman of Golden Tickets.
"They are readily available," Silverman said. "Things started off pretty high, then it's gotten steady."
StubHub, which sells tickets online, said it's on pace to outsell last year and become its top selling event in company history.
The escalating prices will benefit one group. Cowboys fan Neal Hawks purchased an end zone suite at Cowboys Stadium and put it up for auction to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas.
The auction closes on Feb. 2 and fans can bid at www.ha.com/bbbs. As of Friday afternoon, the current bid was $80,000 for the suite.
Hawks wouldn't say if he paid anything close to the $70,000 one fan spent.
Silverman said the $200 Party Plaza tickets the NFL put on sale last week are going for about $375, and that price could keep rising as fans without tickets become desperate to be there for the game.
"Right now, there's not a big call for those outdoor seats," Silverman said. "Some fans might get left out if they think the ticket prices are too high and might come and get them."
StubHub had said earlier Friday that 26 percent of its buyers are from Texas and are paying an average price of $3,268 per ticket. StubHub spokesperson Joellen Ferrer said the average asking price for a Super Bowl ticket is $3,676.
But later in the day, StubHub said that more tickets are hitting the market and driving down prices slightly.
Wisconsin and Pennsylvania buyers picked up their buying as well. They went from making up only 1 percent of the marketplace earlier in the day to 7 percent by evening.
A Ring of Honor Suite, which includes 15 tickets and a catered meal, was purchased for $73,163 by a Texas buyer earlier this week. One fan from California paid $15,002 for a Premium Club Seat at the Steelers' 50-yard line.
"A lot of the tickets are at the corporate level, and I would expect those prices to go up," Ferrer said. "We know fans on both sides are buyers, and that's a good thing for everybody."
Al Burke, another ticket broker based in Dallas, said business is good. Tickets with a face value of $600 are going for about $2,000, and a ticket valued at $900 is selling for around $2,500, he said.
"It's a fairly strong market," Burke said. "The fan base of those two teams is very good and those people travel."
Ticket prices for Super Bowl XLV might have gone higher if there were a different matchup. If the New York Jets were playing the Chicago Bears, for instance, ticket buyers would have been out to spend big money.
"It's different fan bases," Silverman said. "Green Bay and Pittsburgh have blue collar-type fans, and it's a fan base that's nationwide. The demand will be really high next week. But if you have New York or Chicago, you can expect things to go up a little bit the week before the game."
If you possess Super Bowl tickets, don't plan to sell them on the street -- it's against the law in Arlington, Texas. You have to be a ticket broker to avoid losing your tickets and going to jail if you get caught.
