Broncos Tickets Are Hot, & Expensive
DENVER (CBS4) - It's just two days away from the official start of the Denver Broncos season and fans are excited.
With all the Peyton Manning mania already, CBS4 wondered how hard it will be to get tickets to the games this year and if prices are out of reach.
A pep rally for the team was held in downtown Denver on Friday.
The matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers is the most in-demand ticket on StubHub for the NFL this weekend. StubHub says they've seen a three-times increase in demand for the Broncos home opener since last season. The known name, Manning, is getting credit and fans are eating it up.
Manning mania got Broncos fans out in record numbers to this year's training camp scrimmage. And now, with Sunday's game, the Manning era will officially begin.
Fans have high hopes.
"He's going to win and bring the spirit back, like Elway did to the team," fan Patricia Gallegoes said.
For fans, the Manning effect is making a seat at Sports Authority Field at Mile High a tougher ticket to get.
"There's been over three million page views," Barbara Shannon with StubHub said.
The Broncos ticket sales director says premium seats are hot; the club level and suites are reporting higher sales. Reserved seats have been sold out since 1970.
Jim Luethke is a season ticket holder of 20 years, but says secondary market tickets are more expensive than before with the Manning hype.
"They're very expensive, like $500, $600, $700 apeice on the secondary market," Luethke said.
According to a compiler of online ticket prices from StubHub and other sites, the average price for a 2012 Broncos ticket in the secondary market comes in at $298.97. That's up 64 percent from last season, which was $182.69.
It's the largest increase of any NFL team, making Broncos seats the fourth-most expensive team for this year behind the Chicago Bears ($377.39), New England Patriots ($352.95) and New York Giants ($318.52).
Highest price paid for a ticket is $1,765 at field level sideline. The next most expensive tickets for the Broncos are the matchups with the New Orleans Saints and Oakland Raiders.
