Super Bowl 2015 Tickets: Buying Last Minute And How To Tell If They’re Real

The good news for those looking to buy last-minute tickets to Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix is that there's still a limited number of tickets left for America’s favorite sports event. The downside? Average ticket prices for the big game Sunday are well into the thousands and many have crossed the $10,000 threshold.

The face value of Super Bowl XLIX tickets this year was $500 to $1,500, but those tickets were quickly snatched up. Ticket brokers who buy tickets from the teams in bulk jack up prices to make a profit. Ticket sales have risen some 49 percent over last year, according to NJ.com.

In this year's big NFL showdown, the New England Patriots will face 2014 bowl champs Seattle Seahawks at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, with kickoff slated for 4:30 p.m. MST.

Your best bet for snagging last-minute Super Bowl tickets might be to purchase a hospitality package deal. Hotels near the stadium have offered all-inclusive Super Bowl experiences that include reserved game-day tickets, souvenirs, on-site assistance and round-trip transportation to the stadium on game day. Places like the JW Marriott in Scottsdale Camelback are offering four-night Super Bowl packages for $2,399 and up. Spots are limited, but you can still check the SBTickets booking page for availability and listings, or call the hotels directly.

To get tickets via resale markets, visit SeatGeek’s Super Bowl ticket tracker page. But it won’t be cheap. As of Friday morning, the average ticket price was listed as $9,421.50. The cheapest option wasn’t much better, at $6,405. The best seats still available came in at over $24,000. Check the official NFL ticket exchange for more prices.

The No. 1 thing law enforcement has advised against is buying last-minute Super Bowl tickets with cash from someone on the street, as counterfeit tickets are everywhere. "No matter how good the tickets look, no matter how sophisticated they are, they will not get you into the stadium on game day,” Anastasia Danias, senior vice president of legal affairs for the NFL, told WNYC News last year.

To spot a fake ticket, look for the Super Bowl ticket artwork on the front of the voucher. The date, 02 01 15, is cut with a custom laser and can be seen through the back of the ticket, according to Fox 10 News. The ticket’s XLIX Roman numerals are printed with thermocromatic ink and therefore will disappear when heat is applied.

Other security features on real tickets include a hologram on the back printed in silver foil that moves and has dimension. The Super Bowl logo and Roman numerals on the front of the ticket are raised and embossed.

There’s a small chance last-minute ticket prices could come down this weekend, analysts have said. “Year after year after year, the market dips and usually those last couple of days before kickoff are the cheapest time to buy a ticket,” Connor Gregoire, an analyst at SeatGeek, told FiveThirtyEight.