SAN FRANCISCO — (CNN) Super Bowl 50 is on track to be the most expensive sporting event in U.S. history.
Tickets for the match between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers are selling for an average price of $4,957, according to ticket tracking site SeatGeek.
That’s more than the $4,672 average ticket price for the May, 2015 Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which is currently the most expensive sporting ticket on record. It’s also more than the $4,271 average ticket price for last year’s Super Bowl, which set a record for the big game.
The is the first time in 31 years that the Super Bowl has been in Silicon Valley, and wealthy local residents are undoubtedly helping to drive up ticket prices.
The most expensive tickets sold for Sunday’s game so far were a pair of seats near the 50-yard line, which went for $20,500 each. They were sold to a San Jose resident.
The game is being played in Santa Clara, Calif, which is next door to San Jose. Some Super Bowls attract most of their buyers from out-of-state fans of the two teams. But this year a third of the tickets have been sold to California residents, according to TiqIQ, while Colorado residents have bought 28% of them and North Carolina fans bought 16%.
Ticket prices typically drop in the final days before a game as sellers try to ensure that they unload all of their inventory before the big game, and that has happened this week. Ticket prices sold on Tuesday, for instance, went for an average prices of “only” $3,800, according to SeatGeek. But they’re still not cheap. The cheapest ticket that’s still available is $3,080 for a seat in the upper deck.
The face value of this year’s Super Bowl tickets range from $850 to $1,800, although prime “club seats” that include extra amenities cost as much as $3,000. The NFL also made 1,000 seats available for $500 each through a fan lottery for $500 each.
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