It’s becoming very pricey to attend an NFL game — even if you are a family member of a player.
The prices have continually increased through the years, with an average regular season ticket costing upwards of $375 in 2023.
Football’s biggest day of 2024 is no exception, with Super Bowl LVIII being the most expensive game on record. To watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas, tickets cost about $8,000.
The sticker shock has kept some NFL athletes and their families from buying tickets, including 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey’s mom, Lisa McCaffrey, who confessed she couldn’t afford it.
“We looked into a suite and none of us can afford it,” Lisa said on the “Your Mom” podcast in January 2024. “Not even Christian, moneybags over there nor moneybags Olivia [Culpo]. So, we are not in a suite. I’ll tell you that right now.”
Shortly after Lisa’s admission, Culpo revealed she bought a Super Bowl suite for her fiancée’s mom’s birthday.
Scroll down for what NFL athletes and their families have said about game day ticket prices:
Donna Kelce
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce’s mom, Donna Kelce, knows all too well the struggles of attending the Super Bowl after her sons famously faced off against each other in 2023.
“If your child has a heartbeat, you have to pay for them,” Donna told Today in February 2024. “It doesn’t matter if they just were born. If you have a child, even if you’re holding them the whole time, you have to pay the full price.”
Donna noted that “it’s a little pricey” for NFL families to bring their children to the game, but it’s a special moment that’s hard to miss.
“You want them to know that you were there when your father was in the Super Bowl, so that you can tell them that later on in life,” she said.
During an appearance on the Today show later that month, Donna shared that she’d be cheering on Travis at Super Bowl LVIII from the stands rather than a suite.
“You can understand that the boxes in Vegas are multimillion dollars, so I have a feeling I’m not in a box,” she said. “I have a feeling I’m in the stands.”
Travis Kelce
Travis joked about the steep price of Super Bowl tickets during a February 2024 episode of his and Jason’s “New Heights” podcast.
“Just counting how much money I’m spending on this damn Super Bowl for family and friends to come. Just making sure I’m on top of those finances and losing all this money,” he said when asked how he was prepping before the big game.
Sydney Warner
49ers linebacker Fred Warner’s wife, Sydney Warner, shared in a February 2023 TikTok that all tickets for home and away games aren’t free. She noted that her husband’s team is offered seats at a discounted rate.
Kylie Kelce
Jason and his wife, Kylie Kelce, candidly discussed their decision to buy their children tickets to watch their dad play in Super Bowl LVII during their Kelce documentary.
“We are going to pay almost $4,000 for a f–king kid who’s not going to sit in a seat,” Kylie said in the Prime Video film, which dropped in September 2023. “To watch her dad play in a game. That’s bananas.”
When their daughter Elliotte appeared on the screen with her baby doll, Jason asked her whether she wanted to go to the Super Bowl. Elliotte shook her head before adding, “My baby [doll] wants to go to the Super Bowl, too.” (Jason and Kylie also share daughters Wyatt and Bennett.)
Britton Colquitt
The former Denver Broncos punter welcomed his third child just days before the team was set to play in the Super Bowl in 2016. While each player was allotted 15 tickets for the game, each one was worth $1,800 — even for babies.
“There’s no age limit to tickets,” Britton Colquitt told the Denver Post at the time. “It’s $1,800 for our week-old daughter we just had. It’s kind of crazy.”
He explained that while his daughter wouldn’t remember the day, he made the decision to include her.
“If we win and my wife and two kids are there, but she’s not, how do I explain that to her?” Colquitt explained to CBS Sports. “In the pictures, if we win, I’d like her to be in it.”
Lisa McCaffrey
Before Culpo surprised Lisa with a Super Bowl LVIII suite to watch Christian, the NFL star’s mom opened up about her struggles to secure a ticket and shared that her family was able to “negotiate” a group of tickets in a specific section of the stands.
“I don’t exactly understand what it is, but anyway we are in [that area]. Part of the problem is I wanted eight tickets together because I felt strongly about everybody being together,” Lisa said, adding that her husband, Ed McCaffrey, and other sons would be joining her and Culpo. “[Tickets are] outrageously expensive.”
She continued, “[Christian’s] best friends, they can’t afford it, and Christian used all his [allotted] tickets to get these other seats for us. All his good friends, they’re gonna come out and they’re going to go have a watch party somewhere and we’ll find them later.”
Chanen Johnson
When asked via TikTok whether there is a “family room inside the stadium” for player’s families to watch the game, Saints tight end Juwan Johnson’s wife Chanen Johnson quickly set the facts straight.
“No,” Chanen said in the November 2023 video. “I feel like this is a common misconception because a lot of the times whenever you see families on TV it’s because they’re catching a glimpse of them in their suites or where they’re sitting at with their families. But it’s not free. The regular bad seats aren’t free, let alone the suites.”
Channen explained that “cheaper” stadium suites cost about $20,000, whereas others can cost up to $50,000.
Kelly Stafford
Ahead of the NFC Championship game in January 2022, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford’s wife Kelly Stafford announced she was going to purchase tickets for fans after seeing how cost prohibitive they were.
During an episode of her podcast, “The Morning After With Kelly Stafford & Hank,” she shared that she purchased tickets for about 240 people, ranging in price from $850 to $1,200 each.
Emily Bushman
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Matt Bushman’s wife admitted during a February 2024 TikTok video that the pair’s daughters, Andie and Micah, who were born in 2020 and 2023, respectively, would not be present to cheer on their dad during Super Bowl LVIII.
“Just like it was explained in the Kelce documentary, even newborns count as a ticket. So thankfully, my mom’s gonna watch my girls during the game,” Emily said, noting that Super Bowl tickets cost “about four times as much” as tickets to a regular game.
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Orlando Brown Jr.
Ahead of the 2024 Super Bowl, former Chiefs player Orlando Brown Jr. spoke out against the NFL’s high ticket prices for the big game. “They’re kind of taking advantage of the players knowing that guys like Christian McCaffrey’s family members are public figures — with his dad [retired NFL pro Ed McCaffrey] being who he is and obviously who he’s with, [Olivia Culpo],” the Cincinnati Bengals player told Page Six in February 2024.
Brown Jr., who spent “60 grand” on 2023 Super Bowl tickets for his family, went on to call the ticket pricing “unfortunate,” adding, “I think they should be able to make suites more affordable for people.”
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