Expect ticket sales to be brisk next year, StubHub spokesman Glenn Lehrman said. Ticket prices are running about $3,100 for the Ravens-49ers game, and Lehrman predicted the 2014 Super Bowl would create the largest demand “we’ve ever had.”
“I think people want to be part of a first-time experience. Whatever it is,” he said.
Lehrman said because so many people live on the East Coast _ within driving distance of the stadium, not needing pricey hotel rooms _ cold weather wouldn’t have a chilling effect.
It certainly had an effect in New York on Wednesday. The radio hosts on WFAN began their noontime show talking about the weather; at De Witt Clinton Park in Manhattan, the artificial turf fields often occupied by pickup football games were empty.
But for a chance to see a Super Bowl, fans might sit for a few hours in a raw setting.
“You can see in Lambeau Field how they endure the cold there. They sell out there all the time, and in the Giants' and Jets' stadium they do the same,” New York Rangers captain Ryan Callahan said before Wednesday night’s NHL game at Madison Square Garden against the Boston Bruins.
“For an event like that I don’t think the cold weather is going to deter anybody,” said Callahan, a native of Rochester, N.Y.
Peggy Beisel-McIlwaine agreed. Her grandfather was the Packers’ first president and she recalled being in the stands for the famed Ice Bowl _ the 1967 NFL championship between Green Bay and Dallas when the game-time temperature at Lambeau Field was minus-13 degrees.
“I’ve got sitting in the cold weather down to a science,” she said in an email. “Sitting at Lambeau in subzero weather is all about the clothes: Cashmere, fleece and down and, of course, Ugg boots.”
Come next year, Freeze (“that’s my real name,” she added) said the wintry conditions might be a factor. She’s seen that up close _ while working four years in Chicago, she was a team meteorologist for the Bears, consulting with coaches, special teams members and equipment personnel.
“I’m always for the home-field advantage,” she said. “I think the weather will play into it.”
___
AP Sports Writer Ira Podell contributed to this report.
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