LAS VEGAS — The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will battle it out in the Super Bowl on February 11 in Las Vegas. If you root for one of those teams – or just love seeing major sporting events in person – you may be thinking about heading out to Vegas for the game. But what’s it going to cost you?
“Super Bowl is always an expensive weekend in Las Vegas to be perfectly honest, and I think it's going to be even more so this year,” said Amanda Belarmino, an assistant professor at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality.
Belarmino knows Vegas and says this trip is going to cost you a lot if you’re planning to stay anywhere near the Las Vegas Strip and attend the game. “Vegas isn't so cheap," she said.
Super Bowl LVIII
CBS 8 examined:
- The cost of getting to Las Vegas
- Staying in a hotel
- Buying tickets to the game
Travel
Let’s start with getting there. Leaving San Diego Friday and coming home Monday with one carry-on bag, Southwest Airlines has the cheapest flight we could find - $241- and seats are going fast.
Driving will save you some cash, especially if you're going with a friend. Assuming your car gets 30 miles to the gallon, the 680 mile round trip will cost around $100 or $50 split with your buddy.
Hotel
Now you need a place to stay. Here’s the problem – prices are changing constantly – in some cases every few hours, but here’s what we found Monday morning.
The game is being played at Allegiant Stadium and the closest hotel is Staybridge Suites. They're charging $4,053 for three nights! Motel 6 also isn't far from the stadium and it’s a "bargain" for $1,221.
The closest hotel to the stadium that's on the strip is Mandalay Bay. They’re asking $5,255 for three nights, but this is also where the NFL Experience is being held so that's bumping the price up.
If you're into Luxury, The Bellagio is always one of Las Vegas' highest-rated hotels. Their rooms for the three nights start at $5,045. For a much cheaper option and a great strip location, The Linq has rooms for $1,300.
Tickets
Tickets is where things get really expensive. Allegiant Stadium's capacity is just 65,000, making it one of the smallest stadiums to ever hold a Super Bowl.
Combine that with a huge demand and tickets are crazy expensive.
Going through Ticketmaster, which guarantees your tickets are legitimate, the cheapest seat we found, with fees, are in the upper end zone for $10,249.59 each.
If money is no object, we found two 50 yard line seats with entrance to an exclusive pre-game party and post-game field access for just $104,552.95.
Throw in another thousand dollars over the course of the weekend for food, transportation around town, and a few souvenirs and you're not doing this trip for less than $12,000. But hey, it is the Super Bowl.
“This is your bucket list thing, so it's not that I'm going to a Super Bowl every year,” Belarmino said of those justifying the expense. “I may go to this and this is the only Super Bowl I'm going to in my lifetime.”
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