Here's Why Super Bowl Ticket Prices Are Skyrocketing

The secondary market for Super Bowl tickets follows a predictable pattern. Prices sit flat in the $3,000 to $4,000 range, depending on where the game is being played, until two weeks before the game, when the matchup is set. Resale ticket prices then move up or down and the transaction volume is at its heaviest. A few days later, once the hometown fans have made their purchases, prices start the usual slide toward game day, when last-minute buyers get bargains from the leftover inventory.

Things are far stranger for scalpers this year. As game day closes in, ticket prices keep rising. Last Sunday, with a week to go, the average resale price jumped from $3,537 to $4,274, according to data from ticket search engine SeatGeek. By Monday the average price reached $4,573. On Wednesday it jumped again to $5,149 and now sits at $6,191. Look at the late surge for the upcoming game compared with the past four Super Bowls: