Brett Favre has come out of retirement once again, this time to play QB for the Minnesota Vikings, and the fans response? They can’t seem to get enough.
According to the Associated Press, in the 24 hours following Favre’s announcement at Tuesday’s press conference at Winter Park, the Vikings’s training camp, more than 3,200 season tickets and 11,000 single game tickets have been sold. Ticket sellers are having trouble keeping up. “It’s been pretty crazy the last couple of days,” Ticket King’s Cortney Storsved told TicketNews. “We have been swamped. It’s been huge [ever since] it was announced that [Brett Favre] was flying to Minnesota. The Vikings’ Web site actually crashed.”
And ticket prices have climbed as high as fan enthusiasm, with some sellers reporting huge jumps in prices just hours after Favre’s move to Minnesota became clear. Tickets that days ago averaged in the mid $100 range now hover at the low $300 mark. And the most sought-after tickets are, of course, for Favre’s return to Lambeau field when his new team meets the Packers on November 1. RazorGator’s offerings for this match up rose over $500 in one day, from $441.48 to $975.56. At 48 hours post-announcement, RazorGator’s lowest priced tickets for the game start at $387, with those for the Vikings’s October 5 home game against the Packers starting at $225.
Despite demand driving ticket prices higher with no visible ceiling, there are still some bargains out there for those hoping to see Favre play. “The best deals [at Ticket King] right now are preseason, of course, and the Detroit Lions on the 15th of November and Cincinnati Bengals the 13th of December,” Storsved said. But things may change quickly in the current environment. “We haven’t changed our pricing too much on those games, but last night people started to pick on the less expensive games…people are starting to get a little price conscious. If we continue to move tickets like we are right now, the prices will go up for those [less expensive tickets].”
Other tickets sellers are promoting similar deals. TicketsNow is selling seats for the Vikings-Packers game on October 5 for as low as $204 and the November 1 match up for $330. Razor Gator’s deals include preseason games starting at three dollars and home games against the Bengals, Lions and Seattle Seahawks starting at $28.
TicketNetwork, which owns TicketNews, is offering preseason attendance as low as $2, with tickets for Vikings home games against the Bengals, the Lions and the Baltimore Ravens starting at $19. Pricing for the October 5 match up at home start at $170, and for Favre’s November 1 return to Lambeau Field at $311.
StubHub has seats for as low as two dollars for preseason games, with the next lowest priced seats for home games with the Lions, Bengals and Seahawks and starting at $14. The site lists their lowest priced seats for the October 5th match up at $139, and it’s also very competitive for the November 1 game, with tickets starting at $291.67.
(The image accompanying this story is from the St. Petersburg Times)
