Super Bowl tickets reach $1,000 apiece

NEW YORK -- The official price of Super Bowl tickets will reach $1,000 for the first time this season.

The NFL confirmed Thursday that 25 percent of the tickets for the Feb. 1 game in Tampa will be priced at $1,000. It also announced it will drop the price of 1,000 tickets at Raymond James Stadium by $200 to $500, the first time the league has cut prices for a Super Bowl.

Tickets for last year's game in Glendale, Ariz., between the New England Patriots and New York Giants were priced at $700 and $900, up from $600 and $700 the year before.

Overall, the official price for 17,000 suite and club seats will be $1,000 each. Another 53,000 tickets will go for $800, with the remaining 1,000 at $500.

At last year's game, the average price of tickets on StubHub, the online resellers, was $4,300.

Ticket prices for the first Super Bowl, played at the Los Angeles Coliseum 43 years ago, were $6, $10 and $12. They went over the $100 mark in 1988 and have increased regularly since.

-- AP