January 29, 2024

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Super Bowl tickets are reaching unprecedented levels, thanks to several powerful factors. … A surprise find of a highly coveted box of 44-year-old hockey cards is going to fetch at least seven figures at auction. … And the fallout from Sports Illustrated’s mass layoffs now reaches the labor front as the union representing affected employees files a federal complaint.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Powerful Factors Fueling Unrivaled Demand for Super Bowl Tickets [[link removed]]

Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

The equation for Super Bowl LVIII tickets is quite simple: Taylor Swift-enhanced Kansas City Chiefs fandom + the West Coast-draw of the San Francisco 49ers + the allure of Las Vegas = record-level pricing.

Average secondary ticket market list pricing for the NFL’s title game, set for Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium, has reached $10,752, according to the ticket aggregator TicketIQ, the highest non-COVID figure ever tracked at this point before the Super Bowl. (Technically, Super Bowl LV, three years ago, saw a higher number, but that game featured seating capacity limited to 25,000 due to the pandemic.) TickPick, meanwhile, said average purchase prices for Super Bowl LVIII thus far have reached $9,815 per ticket, also a record figure and 70% higher than a year ago.

So, what got us here? This year’s game [[link removed]] features a highly potent mix of competing teams and fanbases, plus a sizzling host market. The already-popular Chiefs have reached a new level of prominence [[link removed]] this season thanks to tight end Travis Kelce’s romantic relationship with Swift. The 49ers, meanwhile, have the NFL’s sixth-largest social media following [[link removed]] among NFL teams. And the league’s first-ever Super Bowl in Las Vegas brings the largest single event in U.S. sports to the sports industry boom town [[link removed]].

In another powerful indicator of the game’s historic appeal, low-end get-in pricing begins at more than $7,000, also ranking among the highest-ever figures for a Super Bowl played under normal conditions.

“This is probably one of the lower-impact [potential] matchups, actually, and demand is still up,” Jesse Lawrence, TicketIQ’s founder and CEO, tells Front Office Sports. “All bets are off for where this goes over the next two weeks, but I do think team demand is less of a factor this year, and the Vegas location is definitely helping drive this.”

Money Left on the Table

As strong as the current ticket numbers are, they likely would have been even higher had the Detroit Lions defeated the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game given that market’s establishment of a robust mini-economy [[link removed]] around the Lions’ upstart run.

“The Lions’ demand for this,” says Lawrence, “would have been through the roof.”

Sports Illustrated Union Files NLRB Complaint, Alleges Union-Busting [[link removed]]

The Oklahoman

The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated, is the target of a National Labor Relations Board complaint filed by the union representing SI employees that alleges Arena’s mass layoffs [[link removed]] two weeks ago amounted to union-busting.

Arena laid off a batch of employees earlier this month and gave notice that about 80 workers faced the same fate if the company couldn’t come to a new agreement with Authentic, the outfit that owns and essentially rents SI out to Arena. (Authentic has since been communicating with potential new operators, and a source close to the situation told FOS earlier this month that “Authentic will see Sports Illustrated through a necessary evolution.”) Arena missed a payment to Authentic late last month, leading Authentic to terminate the agreement, a move first reported [[link removed]] by Front Office Sports on Jan. 19.

“It’s clear that The Arena Group ownership is using an engineered dispute over the SI license as a cover to union-bust and unlawfully target our members,” Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York, said in a statement on Monday. Filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board is just the first step, as we continue to explore all options for our membership.” (The NLRB complaint, which FOS obtained, was filed on Thursday.)

“Within the last six months, the Employer has discharged employees because of their support of the Union and/or engagement in Union activities and/or engagement in other protected activities,” the NLRB charge stated.

While most of the employees covered by the union contract were given 90-day notices of potential layoffs as laid out by the Sports Illustrated Union’s collective bargaining agreement with Arena, “a handful were immediately let go,” the NewsGuild said. Among those let go without notice was a union officer.

Even Ross Levinsohn, the former CEO of Arena, seemed to take issue with the way layoffs unfolded. Levinsohn resigned from Arena’s board the same day as the firings and wrote [[link removed]] in his resignation letter that the “abhorrent actions” of Arena’s board had left him with “no choice but to resign.”

“Today’s obliteration of Sports Illustrated’s storied newsroom and the union-busting tactics is the last straw,” Levinsohn continued. “These actions and the inaction of this board are illegal, riddled with self-dealing, and will almost certainly lead to shareholder lawsuits. In my more than 30 years inside of public and private companies, I’ve never witnessed more negligence in my career.”

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Unexpected Hockey Card Find Is Set for Historic Outcome [[link removed]]

Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

Hockey icon Wayne Gretzky famously said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” An unexpected find—a pristine case of 44-year-old hockey cards, all unopened, perhaps including the Great One’s rookie card—is fueling one of the most notable shots in sports memorabilia history.

Heritage Auctions is leading [[link removed]] the sale of a sealed case of 16 boxes of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards, with 48 packs in each box. The otherwise little-known set famously includes Gretzky’s rookie card, and the card case carries an estimated value of at least $2 million. Bidding has so far reached $1.23 million, including the buyer’s premium, for the auction ending Feb. 24.

The Gretzky O-Pee-Chee card already ranks among the most coveted items for sports collectors. A private sale in 2021 of the card, also brokered through Heritage Auctions, fetched [[link removed]] $3.75 million, as it was one of only two O-Pee-Chee Gretzky rookie cards ever to earn a gem mint condition grade.

The current auction is set to increase that number considerably, but it also carries something of a gamble, as the sealed case offers no certainty as to how many Gretzky cards are included. The case includes 7,680 cards overall, and with 396 cards in the full O-Pee-Chee set, basic math would suggest there are at least 19 Gretzkys included. But the random packing of the case means there could be more of the coveted cards … or fewer.

Heritage is calling the case the sports collectible industry’s “greatest unopened find of the 21st century.” The consignor in the sale is a collector from Regina, Saskatchewan, who long ago acquired the box from a wholesaler as he pursued his hobby of accumulating full sets of cards. The box was then forgotten about for decades, but remarkably it was maintained [[link removed]] in pristine condition and has suffered no ill effects from extreme temperatures or other product decay.

Conversation Starters Now that the Super Bowl is set, the Sphere in Las Vegas showed [[link removed]] that it’s ready for the occasion. Sunday’s NFC title game loss was tough on the Detroit Lions and their fans. However, the Ford Motor Company delivered a strong message [[link removed]] about the future. The media assigned to cover this year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas will be staying at the Luxor Hotel and Casino, which currently looks more like a tasty snack. Check [[link removed]] it out. Editor’s Picks Verdict of the Olympic Figure Skating Doping Hearing Finally Announced: Valieva is Guilty, U.S. Gets Gold [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Valieva found guilty of doping, US likely to get the gold medal. Five Burning Questions: Fox’s Tom Brady-Greg Olsen Dilemma [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]The GOAT is set to take over Olsen's No. 1 analyst job. Here Comes the Great Chinese Pickleball Revolution. The Goal Is Olympic Supremacy [[link removed]]by John Walters [[link removed]]A country with over 1 billion people wants to dominate the sport. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], A.J. Perez [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Peter Richman [[link removed]], Adam Duerson [[link removed]]

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