Sarni's Scrolls: Hey, Big Spender

Las Vegas Super Bowl tickets are the most expensive ever

Super Bowl tickets are super hot with the big game 12 days away.

Three powerful factors are fueling the unrivaled demand, Front Office Sports reports:

■ Taylor Swift-enhanced Kansas City Chiefs fandom.

■ The West Coast-draw of the San Francisco 49ers.

■ The allure of Las Vegas.

Average secondary ticket market list pricing for the Feb. 11 game at Allegiant Stadium had reached $10,752 on Monday, 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.

What's more: 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.

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 fan base.

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Sunday's NFL championship games both topped 50 million viewers for the first time in 10 years.

■ NFC (Lions-49ers) on Fox: 56.32 million. Biggest since 2012 (Giants-49ers).

■ AFC (Chiefs-Ravens) on CBS: 55.47 million. Most viewers ever.

Note: Out-of-home ratings weren’t part of Nielsen’s same-day reporting until 2020.

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"Taylor Swift Mega Meltdown" was the lead story on "Morning Joe" on Wednesday. How ridiculous. The Super Bowl is rigged. The pop star is a psy-op to get football fans to vote for Biden.

Charlie Pierce wrote in Esquire under the headline: "The Wingnuts Have Spoken About Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift." "This is turning me into a Chiefs fan"

Smart people know better.

■ David Letterman: "It's good for the footballers. It's good for Taylor Swift and it's something positive and happy for the world. And also politically, Taylor Swift is a huge force, and I think just wants to see people do the right thing. So God bless Taylor Swift and [Kelce]."

■ Pat McAfee: "These two [Travis Kelce and Swift] may be perfect for each other... Taylor Swift is part of the football world. This is good news. Not bad news."

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Tennis Channel analyst Jon Wertheim on Nick Kyrgios as a commentator:

"Given his mode of being, his fondness for attention, his candor and his preference for the team over the vulnerability of playing as an individual, Nick Kyrgios is better suited for tennis commentating than tennis playing. Like Damn Yankees or Big, this almost resembles the premise for a screenplay. The Zoltar fortune-telling machine says, “Good news and bad news, young Nick. I am going to make you a professional athlete. But it’s going to be in a sport that doesn’t appeal to you and runs counter to your constitution.”

Tennis fans: Read Wertheim's "50 Parting Shots From the Australian Open" on Si.com.

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Americans streamed 21 years worth of video last year, according to Nielsen data.

■ "Suits" was the most streamed show of 2023 with 57.7 billion minutes watched. It beat "The Office" (57.1 billion) record for minutes watched in a single year.

■ "Ted Lasso" was the most popular original streaming series.

■ "Moana" topped the charts for movie streaming.

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ETC.

■ The NFL Network's Peter Schrager has correctly predicted the past four Super Bowl champions before the season started. This year he correctly predicted both teams in the big game. His pick: Chiefs 34, 49ers 28.

■ Travis Kelce is +600 to score the first touchdown.

■ The Chiefs are expected to wear red jerseys for the Super Bowl. The AFC team is the home team this year.

■ CBS showed Taylor Swift seven times for a total of 44 seconds during Sunday's AFC Championship game... Swift wore a Kansas City gold dog tag necklace from WEAR by Erin Andrews ($43.99).

■ Lionel Messi is doing a Super Bowl ad for Michelob Ultra. The soccer star will reportedly be paid $14 million. Super Bowl ads cost $10 million for a 30-second spot.

■ Nevada is the 11th state to host the Super Bowl. Florida (17) has hosted the most.

■ The Super Bowl media is being housed at the Luxor, which currently looks like a giant Dorito.

■ NFL gambling policy in Las Vegas during Super Bowl week.... Participating players: gambling of any kind forbidden; Visiting players: no gambling on sports.

■ The Puppy Bowl will feature 131 pups from 73 shelters and rescue groups. The smallest and largest dogs. Six dogs with disabilities.

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■ Tom Brady is merging his TB12 wellness company and Brady Brand apparel line with sportswear outfit NOBULL. 

■ CBS's NFL Insider Jonathan Jones writes Bill Belichick is expected to take a TV job. "Every network would want him. He would revolutionize media with the way he prepares," Jones said.

■ Fan Duel parent Flutter is selling shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Rob Gronkowski was on the trading floor to celebrate. The move steps up competition with Draft Kings.

■ Minute Media, the parent company to sports and entertainment websites like The Players Tribune and Mental Floss, has raised a new round of funding, valuing the firm at over $1 billion. The company us reportedly in the running to acquire publishing rights to Sports Illustrated.

■ The Baltimore Ravens unveiled a $430 million plan to upgrade M&T Stadium.

■ Deion Sanders' sons pitched in to buy Dad a mansion in Denver.

■ Baylor is retiring Britney Griner's No. 42.

■ The Big East (1. UConn), Big Ten (2. Purdue), ACC (3. UNC), Big 12 (4. Houston) and SEC (5. Tennessee) all have a team in the AP men's college basketball Top 5.

■ Read: "Unstoppable" by Maggie Nichols, the first U.S. gymnast to speak about Larry Nassar's abuse.

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■ Pat McAfee and Michael Cole  are the new duo calling "WWE Raw."

■ NBC's prime-time U.S. Figure Skating Championships women's free telecast was Friday's most-watched sports event (1.4 rating, 2.21 million, up 19% and 18%).

■ "Suffocate:" Basketball term meaning three consecutive defensive stops. The Cleveland Cavaliers are good at suffocated.

■ The Saratoga Race Course will host a four-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, June 6-9. There will be 23 stakes races worth $10.1 million.

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■ Bruno Mars has opened the Pinky Ring, a new jazz bar and cocktail lounge at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

■ "Dancing With The Stars" alum Cheryl Burke hosts the "Sex, Lies and Tan Lines" podcast on iHeart Radio.

■ A photographer has trained two rats to take selfies of themselves.

■ Fastest-growing restaurant categories: Dessert shops (up 66%), creperies (63%), hot pot joints (53%).

■ The Double Big Mac is back at McDonald's.

■ Love the Instacart "I'm at the football game... I'm at the grocery store" commercial.

■ An American chemistry professor suggests adding a pinch of salt to create the perfect cup of tea. Causing quite a stir in England.

■ Time's first must-see show of the year is "Expats," the adaptation of Janice Y.K. Lee's novel on Amazon. Nutshell: "Tragic, melancholy, and shocking."

■ Royal Caribbean International's Icon of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, set sail from Miami over the weekend. Roughly five times the size of the Titanic with a maximum passenger capacity of 7,600.

■ NBC Universal has released detailed plans for its new theme park, Universal Epic Universe. Summer, 2025.

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THEY SAID IT

■ "Dad played golf with Travis Scott and 50 Cent like it was no big deal. Retirement is going too well." -- Kristen Saban on Nick playing with two rappers at Reggie Jackson's Mr. October Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic.