Let’s be honest, Super Bowl tickets are not an easy score, maybe as difficult as reading the Roman numbers they use for these games.

For those of you who don’t know Roman numerals, we’re approaching Super Bowl 54, or LIV. The “L” stands for 50.

Speaking of which, “Super Bowl 50” was called exactly that WITHOUT the Roman numeral nonsense because the marketeers felt that just the letter “L” looked lame by itself. And it wouldn’t have played well in Peoria, as the expression goes.

So are scoring super bowl tickets as hard as being a fantasy football champ? Let’s explore our options.

If you plan on attending this epic event, you can take the low road or the high brow road. Let’s start with the cheap tickets.

Remember, holing up in your local sports bar is a great place to catch the game with your friends as well. Check out our fave Boston sports bars if that just happens to be your neck of the woods.

Firstly, we’re using the word “cheap” here loosely, as the average Super Bowl ticket will be north of US$4,000.

Tickets to the very first Super Bowl in 1967 cost an average of US$10. My, how times have changed. The tickets are as secure as money when it comes to trying to forge them.

Super Bowl tickets have numerous safety features put in place so they cannot be duplicated, such as thermal ink and advanced hologram technology. So you should be safe saving a buck buying on the secondary market. Just make sure the dealer is reputable.

Also, know how the system works, after your purchase you’ll realize that the ticket just gives you a zone, and not a section or row.

In a nutshell, ticket brokers are selling season ticket holders’ tickets, and seat assignments are not given until the week of the game.

When there are specific seats that you can buy today versus these general zones, the zone tickets often sell at a discounted price.

Super Bowl tickets traditionally become cheaper as the game approaches. Prices are at their highest right after the conference championship games when fans’ spirits and BACs (blood alcohol content levels) are still high.

Prices usually continue to fall as the two-week period comes to a close; however, this is not guaranteed. The 2020 game is being played in a very popular location – the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.

Therefore, there’s going to be some competition for the seats. as this is the smallest venue played in the past 5 years.

NFL On Location

Now we’re getting into the pricier side of game day with NFL On Location. Super Bowl tickets are available for sale from the NFL’s on Location service, which is more or less a ticket brokerage extension of the NFL.

These are packaged with pre-game parties and meetups with NFL legends like this one featuring host Dan Marino.

Going the Broker route? You may go broke. In a frenzy on game day, they wheel and deal, trying to acquire tickets. These brokers try to secure tickets they, in many cases, sold to fans weeks or months earlier.

The practice, wholly unregulated, is called “ticket speculation,” and it can be found around nearly every type of high-demand event, from the Super Bowl to the Masters Tournament.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy says player tickets are “for personal use and not for resale.” The provision is “subject to reasonable safeguards to avoid scalping of the tickets,” according to the contract.

McCarthy said the league allots 75 percent of Super Bowl tickets directly to the league’s 32 teams, with each Super Bowl team getting 17.5 percent of the tickets, the host team 5 percent, and the other 29 NFL teams just over 1 percent apiece.

The remaining 25 percent of seats are doled out by the league office. They’re sold to players and provided to business and media partners. About 500 tickets are donated to military families and youth football groups, he said.

There are the big ticket brokers out there like BigStub that covers the gambit of events, and better refund policies than those scramblers we spoke of on game day.

Needless to say, all the South Beach hotels are scrambling to package your trip to perfection. With parties, tailgating, and VIP hospitality,  here’s a good list of featured hotels like the Royal Palm South Beach and Edin Roc Miami Beach.

Stay in Miami Beach and you’re only about 45 minutes from the stadium. Here are our top 5 luxury hotels in Miami Beach.

Royal Palm South Beach