Ticket packages for Atlanta’s Super Bowl offer luxury — at a price

The NFL’s logo for the Super Bowl in Atlanta.

Want to watch the Super Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium from a 50-yard-line club seat, attend a three-hour pregame party at the Georgia World Congress Center and stroll onto the field for the winning team’s postgame celebration?

All of that comes with a hefty price: $17,500 per person.

That’s the high end of ticket packages offered by the NFL’s official hospitality partner for Super Bowl LIII, which will be played in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2019.

The packages from On Location Experiences range from $5,000 to $17,500, with nine price points in between. They went on sale to the general public in June, OLE chief executive officer John Collins said, but were pre-marketed to previous customers and some Falcons season-ticket holders.

Each package bundles a game ticket with other benefits. The price variance largely depends on seat location and the level of luxury included.

For example, a $5,000 package includes upper-level end-zone seats and a pregame party, while a $12,500 package includes lower-level seats around the 30-yard line, a pregame party and in-stadium club access.

Among other benefits offered with the packages are access to entertainment events, such as concerts, and a dedicated stadium entrance.

The top-end $17,500 package includes the most exclusive seats in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, access to the stadium’s fanciest club during the game, on-site concierge service and the opportunity after the game to “dive into a sea of confetti” on the field during the trophy presentation.

In all cases, the packages cost considerably more than the face value of the associated game tickets alone. (The NFL hasn’t announced the face-value prices, but they reportedly ranged from $950 to $5,000 for last season’s Super Bowl in Minneapolis.) Problem is, very few people in the general public get access to Super Bowl tickets at face value, leaving hospitality packages or the secondary market as the likeliest options for many who want to attend the game.

“The Super Bowl is pretty unique as an event – it’s probably the only event of this stature that has no real true on-sale (of tickets to the public),” Collins said in June. “Any other sporting event typically has an on-sale. The Super Bowl doesn’t because of the way the tickets get distributed.”

The NFL controls Super Bowl tickets and reportedly has allocated the inventory this way in the past: 17.5 percent to each of the participating teams, 5 percent to the host team, 1.2 percent to each of the other 29 teams and 25.2 percent to the league office. It is not clear if the percentages will be different for the Atlanta game.

The league provides 9,500 tickets to On Location Experiences for the company to bundle in hospitality packages. OLE doesn’t sell stand-alone game tickets outside of the packages.

When the packages are purchased, the customer will be able to select online their exact seats for the game, Collins said.

Potential buyers for the packages, Collins said, include Atlantans “who want to experience a Super Bowl in their home market,” corporations “in Atlanta and around the country who want to take care of their most trusted customers or employees” and football fans around the world who have a trip to the Super Bowl on their “bucket list.”

He said some packages will be held back until January for sale to fans of the Super Bowl LIII teams after the AFC and NFC championship games set the matchup.

The most expensive package will sell out first, Collins predicted, in part because of the limited supply of 50-yard-line seats.

At additional cost, On Location also offers package buyers access to hotels, transportation and various events during the week before the game.