Past Super Bowl Parties and Ticket Information (2/07)
Super Bowl VIP Style
So you want to do Super Bowl VIP Style! Let me give you the ins and outs of where to go and what it will cost you. I started going to Super Bowl as a writer about 10 yrs. ago when I Broncos beat the Packers in one of the best Super Bowls ever played. I remember meeting fans that had come all the way from Green Bay and Denver to San Diego in hopes of buying game tickets, to their shock they were going for $2,500 a ticket, so after coming all that way they found themselves watching the game in the hotel wishing they had saved the travel money and stayed home. The next year Elway and the Broncos repeated, playing Atlanta in Miami, Broncos fans with a bitter taste in their mouth stayed away and tickets were only going for $1,200. Last year in the pouring rain you still could not buy a seat for less than $3,000, why? Because Chicago has money, and they were in Miami rain or shine to see their Bears. My first Super Bowl was just as a fan, 1983 Redskins and Dolphins at the Rose Bowl, ticket prices were $60 and the RB holds 104,000 seats, tickets at cost were not hard to find. Each year the NFL raised the ticket prices around $50, so now the price is at $700, so a hot game with a big city team tickets start at $2,500-$6,000 depending on where you want to sit. Top row 50 yard line, Giants and Ravens started at $3,000, NY has deep pockets. Best deal ever was Jan 2002, few months after 9-11, Patriots and Rams, fantastic game, most corporate clients and fans thought the New Orleans Super Bowl would be a terrorist target and stayed away, $500 face value game tickets were being unloaded outside the stadium for as little as $200. That will probably never happen again. There are fake tickets being sold so your best bet if you are laying out thousands is to buy tickets from a local ticket agency, they deal in only real tickets and are insured.
There are some amazing parties at the Super Bowl, very few sell tickets to the public, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find people selling their tickets, and only a few are thrown by the NFL. The NFL’s Commissioner’s Ball on Friday night holds a few thousand people, all the owners are there in their own roped off area, many NFL current and retired players stroll the party. Ask around the hotel bars and lobbies you can find someone selling them between $150-$500 a ticket. Sometimes it’s a charity event and the league sells tickets, New Orleans was a 9-11 fundraising concert instead of a party.
The NFL players Party Thurs. night is smaller and more exclusive, I chatted with Emmitt Smith and Curtis Martin one year, surprisingly Keeshawn Johnson and Keenan McCardell both showed up and they were playing for the Bucs in the SB just 3 days later. Those tickets are harder to find, run around $500-$750
Friday night is the always the white hot Maxium Magazine party, people pay from $500 to $2000 to be seen with all the celebrities. Last year the Chicago Celebs. were out, William Peterson from CSI, Jeremy Piven aka Ari Gold from Entourage, Jim Belushi, along with David Spade, Mickey Rourke, Cal Ripkin, first round pick Mario Williams, you never know who you are going to rub elbows with but it is always the who’s who of NFL and Hollywood.
Saturday afternoon, super agent Leigh Steinberg has a bash, usually way out of town, New Orleans it was an amusement Park, Atlanta a Museum, Houston an Aquarium, good mix from Deion, Micheal Irvin, to singer/actress Cristina Milan, but last year he scaled back, but still nice, tickets can be found for $100.
Sometimes Friday but usually Sat night Playboy does a party, Playmates in bunny outfits, 20 or so girls wearing nothing but body paint and lots of Celebs. tickets can be had for $500. Back in 2002, New Orleans I was in a limo with the always colorful Yankees pitcher David Wells, actors Dennis Haysbert, President Palmer on 24, now The Unit and Jonathan Silverman, problem was the limo driver we flagged down off the street was from Atlanta, didn’t know his way around and we got lost, 20 minute ride turned into an hour and a half. When we finally got to the Anne Rice mansion way out of town the Playboy party was almost over. Good part is if you roll with the Celebs. you can usually get in without a ticket. And I got to meet Barry Sanders, he might have retired in mystery but he is usually at the Playboy party.
Sunday, game day NFL throws an all out buffet brunch, someone always has an extra for $50-100. And back in the same hotel ballroom after the game they have a smashing buffet dinner, where on huge screens the game is replayed, which if you were just at the game you now can see the TV version, with play by play announcers and replays, actually quite interesting, $100-$200.
Hours leading up to kickoff is the NFL Tailgating party, often at the stadium parking lot, so you might need a game ticket just to enter the gates, usually a big band headlines, No Doubt in New Orleans, Black Crows, Miami, 1000 guests, Houston was a barbeque with cows and steers on display, tickets are $500 to $1000 where you can find them. So book a hotel ahead of time, bring a fat wade of cash where game tickets and hot parties await.
By the way, the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears to win their first Super Bowl 29-17 as Peyton Manning earns MVP honors