T Deadline nearing for Super Bowl ticket lottery

By Pete Alfano, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

May 16--By now most football fans know that a Super Bowl crowd is not what you find at NFL stadiums during the regular season.

When speaking to a United Way-Arlington luncheon recently, Tara Green, vice president of the North Texas Super Bowl Committee, said that 65 percent of those coming to the game are executive decision-makers.

No, they're not the type to paint their face and dye their hair in their favorite team's colors.

Our colleagues at The Dallas Morning News had a story Saturday reminding fans that the NFL does have a ticket lottery in which 500 average Joes and Jills can win a pair of Super Bowl tickets by entering the random drawing, with the deadline June 1.

That's not the end of hope for fans in North Texas who still have dreams of being inside Cowboys Stadium on Feb. 6 for Super Bowl XLV.

But a word of caution: You better have some reserves in the checking or savings account.

The NFL distributes tickets this way:

* Each participating team gets 17.5 percent. * The host team gets 5 percent of the tickets. * Each of the remaining 29 teams in the league get 1.2 percent. * And the NFL gets the remaining 25.2 percent.

Being enterprising, a number of fans -- customarily season ticket holders for the 32 teams -- sell those tickets for a nice profit.

Years ago, they would take out ads in newspapers and resort to old-fashioned ticket scalping. But now, they go on websites such as eBay, RazorGator and StubHub, and post their tickets for sale.

This practice may be frowned upon by the NFL, but the league can't protest too much because some of its players and coaches with tickets have done the same thing in the past.

When can you make the biggest score? Wait until the end of the NFC and AFC championship games, when the Super Bowl matchup is decided. That's when some well-heeled fans from the teams playing in the Super Bowl will pay a fortune for tickets.

There are published reports of tickets in past Super Bowls selling for $4,000 and more, and perhaps even $10,000.

No, pursuing Super Bowl tickets is not for those with weak knees or who are making only the minimum payment on their credit card balance.

But if you really want to attend the Super Bowl, you don't have to necessarily win the NFL's ticket lottery.

(If you do want to enter the lottery, here's the info, straight from the NFL)

Entries for the random drawing are accepted between Feb. 1 and June 1 of the year preceding the game in question. All ticket requests must be sent via certified or registered mail. Those selected in the random drawing will have the opportunity to purchase two tickets.

Requests should be sent to:

Super Bowl Random Drawing P.O. Box 49140 Strongsville, OH 44149-0140

Please note that only one request per address is accepted. All duplicate requests will be disregarded.

Read more: http://startelegram.typepad.com/cowboys_stadium/2010/05/you-can-score-super-bowl-tickets-for-the-right-price.html#ixzz0o8DCX0Ap

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