If You’re Willing to Pay “Completely Insane” Prices, You Can Go to the Eagles Game on Sunday

If you want tickets to see the Eagles play the Steelers this Sunday, you are going to have to fork over a lot of money. (Getty Images)

On Friday, a new order from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Rachel Levine goes into effect. The order changes the rules for public events in Pennsylvania, making it possible for live spectators to watch the Eagles (hopefully) beat the Steelers this Sunday.

Now, before you get too excited, the game is in Pittsburgh. Then again, Pittsburgh is less than a five hour drive from Philly. So that’s not really that much of a hurdle, I guess. Assuming you’re die-hard.

What might be more of a hurdle is the ticket price.

Heinz Field holds 68,400 people. The Steelers reportedly released around 5,500 tickets. Naturally, those 5,500 tickets evaporated in the blink of an eye. And, also naturally, people are reselling them for a premium.

I checked StubHub on Thursday afternoon. If you’re looking for just a single seat, you’re out of luck. If you’re buying a pair, they average out to $675 each. Keep in mind that you must buy two. And if you’re in need of four tickets, the average price is about $550, so $2,200 before taxes, fees, gas, tolls, and, of course, beers.

Now, I know nothing about football ticket prices, because I haven’t been to a game since the Eagles played the team now known as Washington during their last season at the Vet. So I turned to the person I usually turn to with Eagles questions. And that person is Eagles superfan Casey Parker, owner of Jose Pistola’s, Sancho Pistola’s, and Pistola Del Sur. He was also the guy who came up with the idea for Dallas Sucks beer.

“Completely insane,” says Parker of the ticket pricing. “That shit is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.”

With the new rules in place, outdoor venues with a pre-COVID legal capacity of up to 2,000 people can allow 25 percent of their capacity. For venues between 2,001 and 10,000 people, that number is 20 percent. And for venues of 10,000 people more more, it’s 15 percent, with a cap of 7,500 people.

Indoors, you’re looking at 20 percent for venues up to 2,000 people, 15 percent for venues that hold between 2,001 and 10,000 people, and 10 percent for venues larger than that, with a cap at 3,750 attendees.

Of course, none of this applies to Philadelphia yet, because here in Philly, we can (and usually do) make our own rules.

“The City of Philadelphia will not move to these increased limits on Friday,” the city said in a statement earlier this week. “As with other changes to restrictions at the state level, Philadelphia will require additional time to evaluate what can be done safely in the city. The number, size and diverse uses of event venues in Philadelphia present unique challenges when considering increases to gathering limits.”

But even if the city decided to allow indoor venues to open at 20 percent next week, don’t think that all venues are going to just up and do that.

“We did an hour worth of sloppy pizza box math, and we’ll not be able to open either venue until we get to 50 percent,” says Sean Agnew, who operates Boot & Saddle and Union Transfer. That 50 percent would work out to 100 people at Boot & Saddle and 600 at Union Transfer. Agnew says he expects the city to prohibit “standing shows” for a good long while.

“And there’s lots of confusion over whether the bars could be open,” he adds. “We do not think they could be. Which is fine. But it makes reopening that much harder.”