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SUPER BOWL
Super Bowl LI

Last-minute tickets could be tough to find Super Bowl Sunday

A.J. Perez
USA TODAY Sports

David Namoff is among hundreds searching online and around Houston for tickets to Super Bowl LI.

David Namoff is still hoping to find two tickets to Super Bowl LI.

He’s just easier to spot than most.

This will be Namoff’s 22nd Super Bowl in a row — if he makes it into NRG Stadium — and he’s again fashioned his own towering hat made out of poster board that reads, "I need two Super Bowl tickets." His group of friends has paid as little as $1,450 each, more than $500 less than the going price online Saturday for the cheapest seats about 24 hours before the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons kick off.

"It seems to be coming down some," Namoff, a furniture store owner from Champaign, Ill., told USA TODAY Sports. "You never know. I’ve been down here before and the prices have gone up."

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The average price for a ticket sold on StubHub for Super Bowl LI was $4,078 as of Saturday, 14% less than last year’s game that set records on the site. The cheapest ticket sold on StubHub for the game in recent weeks was $1,500 and the least expensive about 24 hours before the game was $2,200.

"Normally, I’d say just wait and hang out, but I don’t think you are going to see a tremendous price reduction between now and Sunday," StubHub spokesperson Cameron Papp said.

The reason why bargain hunters could be out of luck is the game’s relatively low ticket inventory. TicketIQ reported were about 2,000 tickets available on the secondary market in the final three days before the game, roughly half as many tickets on the market over the same time period last year.

TicketIQ spokesperson Jesse Lawrence said "people are waiting" for more inventory to hit the market, which would lead to lower prices.

"I don’t think we are going to see a major dumping of tickets," Lawrence said in a phone interview from Houston.

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This is the first Super Bowl where On Location Experiences has served as the NFL’s official hospitality partner. Ticket packages, which include access to concerts and pre-game parties, range in price from $5,950 and $12,750 each. On Location still had all four packages available for purchase on Saturday.

Despite repeated requests this week by USA TODAY Sports, a spokesperson for On Location didn’t respond to questions as to whether the company would release the unsold packages to the public for single-ticket sales.

"I think they will split them up and sell to consumers," Papp said.

That would be good news for those like Namoff.

"I’d like to have the tickets (purchased) between two and four hours before game time," he said. "The day of the game usually has the best deals."

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