Green Bay Packers fans have waited a long time to see their favorite team return to the Super Bowl. Now, some may wait a few extra days to buy tickets.

John Lamoreaux, the president of Ticket King in Milwaukee, told TicketNews that tickets to Super Bowl XLV — where the Packers will battle the Pittsburgh Steelers for the NFL championship on Sunday, February 6 — are starting at $2,500. That’s what Lamoreaux was getting for tickets to the Packers’ last appearance in the Super Bowl in January 1998, when it cost $1,400 to get into Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and watch the Packers fall to the Denver Broncos, 31-24, in Super Bowl XXXII.

“We’re seeing a lot of sticker shock — prices are high for your average fan,” Lamoreaux said. “We were involved with the Packers in the Super Bowl in New Orleans [in 1997] and again in San Diego and there was definitely more interest for both of those Super Bowls.

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“There is interest, fans are calling, but they’re choking on the price a little bit.”

Lamoreaux isn’t alarmed by the quiet interest thus far. The opening price of $2,500 is almost double the opening price 13 years ago ($1,400) and the cost of the ticket is only a small part of the investment fans must make to head to Texas for the Super Bowl.

“I’m not surprised to see this,” Lamoreaux said. “When you think about it, it’s going to cost a couple $10 or $15,000 to make this trip. That takes a lot of people out of the equation.”

History suggests people will come back into the mix over the next week. While Wisconsin is home to three major professional sports franchises and the University of Wisconsin‘s powerhouse Big 10 program (the Badgers’ football team just played in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1999 while their men’s basketball team has made the NCAA Tournament 12 straight years and reached the Final Four in 1999), nothing stokes the passion of area fans quite like the Packers, which have a sellout streak dating back to the 1960s and whose season ticket waiting list numbers 81,000.

“I never underestimate the Wisconsin sports fan and in particular the Packers fan,” Lamoreaux said. “I think they’re savvy. As prices drop, I would expect that there will be a new group that comes to the market. The lower prices will bring more buyers into the market and I think [prices will] shoot up from there.”

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