If seeing a Super Bowl in person is on your “Bucket List”, this is the year to go. That’s the upshot of ConvergEx’s annual review of prices associated with the event. 

The get-in price of ticket in Houston is currently $2,019, well less than last year’s $2,900 minimum cost.Average ticket prices are also lower than 2016, at $4,417 versus $6,007 last year. 

For Pat’s fans, airfare is only 1.7x the usual charge to fly to Houston (one-stop), well below the usual pricing airlines charge during Super Bowl weekend.Atlanta fans will have to fork over far more – just over 6x the normal rate – but they do at least have a direct flight.One positive point: both teams’ fans can book local hotel rooms for less than $100/night, even if the nicer ones are closer to $1,000. And if you are thinking of advertising during the big game, you are in luck.The price of a 30 second spot is still $5 million, just like last year. 

The economic message out of this data: either the high end consumer (about the only people that can afford to attend the game) is cutting back on his/her leisure budget, or the Super Bowl is losing a little of its destination-event appeal.  With the current point spread at just 3 points, at least it should be a good game.

With the Super Bowl just a few hours away, you have probably plunked down your cash to participate in one or more of those “Buy a square” pools at the office or your local bar. The big advantage to those games is that you don’t need to know anything about football (proof: I won a pool once) and it makes watching the game a little more fun since you have something riding on the outcome.

One website called www.printyourbrackets.comhas worked out which numbers, based on all 50 Super Bowls, have had the best chance of winning. Since the typical pool has 4 payoffs (1 for each quarter), here are the most common historical outcomes for each: