Bears ticket market may set new records

Oh what a difference a week makes.

Last week at this time ticket brokers basically couldn't find enough buyers for tickets to the Bears-Seahawks game at Soldier Field.

“It was a total bust,” said Dale Soderholm of Front Row Ticket Service in Hinsdale.

Well, it's a completely different story this week as the Bears prepare to host their longtime rival, the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

“This is like our Super Bowl,” Soderholm said. “It's the best-case scenario: Bears-Packers.

“That's as good as it gets.”

In what is currently a sellers market according to Soderholm, ticket prices have started out high as those with the goods look to get maximum value.

And right now that maximum is creeping up to the $3,000-range for primo seats.

According to StubHub spokesperson Joellen Ferrer, prior to the weekend games fans paid an average price of $400 for the Bears-Packers game using the site's contingency policy, but in the last 24 hours or so the average price has jumped to $766 per ticket. To put that in perspective, during the regular season, Packers-Bears was the top-selling Bears home game — fans paid an average price of $294.

Some other numbers of interest from StubHub concerning the NFC championship game:

• Range of tickets purchased has been $200 and $2,942.

• The top 5 buyer states are IL, WI, FL, CA, NJ with Illinois buyers outnumbering Wisconsin buyers nearly 3 to 1.

• Sales have already surpassed last year's NFC championship game, which had an average price of $596 for the Vikings-Saints matchup.

• This game will become the top-selling Conference Championship in StubHub history over the next few days (current No. 1 is Eagles-Cardinals in 2009).

• The last NFC Championship game hosted by the Bears was during the 2006-07 season, when they beat the Saints. Fans paid an average of $632

• The Packers' last NFC championship was during the 2007-08 season, when the lost to the Giants at Lambeau. The average price that day was $710.