How Much Were Super Bowl 1 Tickets — The Shocking Price of the Very First
The Original Price Tag on the Big Game
The first Super Bowl was modest. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosted the clash between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs on January 15, 1967. Fans paid a simple face value. General admission tickets cost $12. Upper deck seats were $6. Box seats started at $12. Luxury suites and sideline proximity pushed prices higher, with some nosebleed and reserved sections sitting closer to $12 as well. Guys, explore more in Guides And Explainers and how much were super bowl 1 tickets.
That sounds almost laughable now. The modern Super Bowl is a financial spectacle. A standard nosebleed seat today starts north of $600. Lower bowl tickets often break $1,500. Premium locations command thousands. The contrast between the first game and the modern era is staggering.
But the story does not stop at face value.
Secondary Market Markups in 1967
Ticket scalping existed long before StubHub and Ticketmaster. Fans scrambled for seats outside the stadium. The secondary market inflated prices, but not to the absurd degree we see today. Reports suggest marked-up tickets reached roughly $40 to $50 in 1967 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that single resale ticket would equate to $380 to $480 in modern currency.
Attendance hovered around 61,946. The stadium capacity was far from full. Many local fans simply could not afford the game. The atmosphere was lively but restrained compared to the hyped media circus of later decades.
What Those Original Tickets Are Worth Today
The face-value paper stubs from 1967 have become serious collectibles. A surviving, well-preserved ticket from the first Super Bowl commands a steep price. Authentic examples have sold for $25,000 to $50,000 or more at auction. The exact price depends on condition, provenance, and accompanying memorabilia.
A signed ticket with a letter of authenticity can push the value even higher. Some high-profile sales have cracked $100,000. These are not just pieces of paper. They are tangible artifacts of American sports history.
Comparing Super Bowl 1 Prices to Modern Costs
Let us look at the numbers side by side.
- Super Bowl I general admission: $12 (1967) - Super Bowl I upper deck: $6 (1967) - Super Bowl I resale estimate: $40–$50 (1967) - Modern Super Bowl nosebleed seat: $600+ - Modern Super Bowl lower bowl seat: $1,500+ - Modern Super Bowl premium sideline: $5,000–$20,000+
Inflation alone does not explain the gap. The cultural weight of the Super Bowl has transformed it into a premium event. The television rights, the halftime show, and the national attention drive costs into the stratosphere. In 1967, the game was a regional attraction for many. Today, it is a global spectacle.
Why the First Ticket Prices Feel So Low
People expect history to feel grand and expensive. The reality is surprisingly humble. The AFL-NFL World Championship Game carried a modest budget. The NFL did not yet command the billion-dollar media deals it enjoys now. The players were paid modest salaries. The event felt more like a big regional college bowl game than a national holiday.
That is precisely what makes the ticket prices so fascinating. The game was enormous in sporting significance, yet the financial footprint was tiny by modern standards.
Where to Find Super Bowl 1 Ticket Pricing Data
For those obsessed with primary-source verification, the original ticket tiers and face-value data are documented through the Pro Football Hall of Fame archives and contemporary newspaper reports from January 1967. Auction records from major houses also provide secondary-market context for surviving stubs. A deep dive into these records confirms the raw numbers we covered above.