Why Are So Many Cheap Patriots-Bills Playoff Tickets Still Available?

The New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills are set to square off in a playoff game Saturday night at Highmark Stadium. But you’d never know it by looking at the ticket prices.

As of midday Thursday, two days out from these AFC East rivals’ first postseason matchup since 1963, there still were hundreds of highly affordable game tickets available through online resellers.

Ticketmaster’s NFL Ticket Exchange featured tickets as low as $30 and dozens for less than $50. On other sites, they’re even cheaper.

Fans attending Saturday’s game will need to brave single-digit temperatures and sub-zero wind chills — this has the potential to be the coldest game in Patriots franchise history — but you’d expect to see a higher level of interest for a playoff game. Especially since this will be the first time Buffalo has played a postseason home game with full fan capacity in 25 years. (The Bills hosted the Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens in the 2020 playoffs, but COVID-19 restrictions capped attendance at 6,700.)

The Buffalo News also noted the Highmark Stadium’s vaccine requirement, COVID restrictions on Canadian visitors and fears of the Omicron variant as factors that could be driving down demand for what should be the hottest Bills ticket of the season.

At the time of this writing, here are the cheapest available tickets for the other five wild-card round games on NFL Ticket Exchange:

Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams: $70.00
Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs: $98.01
Philadelphia Eagles at Tampa Bay Buccaneers: $151.00
San Francisco 49ers at Dallas Cowboys: $158.00
Las Vegas Raiders at Cincinnati Bengals: $180.00

The Patriots won at Highmark Stadium in Week 13, prevailing 14-10 in a game that featured 50-mph wind gusts. The Bills returned the favor three weeks later, winning 33-21 at Gillette Stadium.

If you want a ticket for the rubber match, you won’t have trouble finding one.