Fans eagerly await the Detroit Lions’ NFC Divisional Round playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, despite the team’s long-standing reputation as a laughingstock in the NFL.
Secondhand ticket-selling websites are offering passes to the game at Detroit’s Ford Field for up to $17,000 each.
Stubhub shows tickets for the Lions-Bucs game in Detroit selling for $494 to $17,078 per.
There are also some nosebleed tickets available on TicketMaster for roughly $500.
TickPick, an online marketplace, claimed that the average ticket price for the game is $1,097, making it the most expensive Divisional Round playoff game ever.
Standing room-only tickets to the game are going for roughly $700, according to TickPick.
Last Sunday, the Detroit Lions won their first playoff game in 32 years with a thrilling 24-23 home triumph over the Los Angeles Rams.
The squad advanced to the NFC Championship Game in 2022 with the great Barry Sanders at running back, but has mainly remained at the bottom of the pack over the years.
The Lions’ last run of success was before the Super Bowl, when they won three league championships between 1952 and 1957.
Celebrities born and raised in the Detroit region intend to attend the game, making the Motor City the center of the sports universe this weekend.
Singer Bob Seger, actor Jeff Daniels, and actor, writer, and producer Keegan-Michael Key, all from Michigan, are anticipated to attend, as will NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Eminem, one of the team’s biggest fans.
The rapper recently expressed his passion on Instagram, stating that his New Year’s resolution was for the Lions to win the Super Bowl.
The Lions’ playoff run has brought new attention to their hometown, which is using its professional football team’s revival as a metaphor for the city’s economic recovery.
Detroit was a prosperous metropolis in the 1950s, thanks to the economic power of the once-dominant American automobile industry.
However, global competition and the relocation of industrial jobs overseas plunged the Motor City into decades of financial catastrophe, culminating in 2013 when it declared bankruptcy.
Since then, Detroit has had a revival, fueled by corporations relocating to the city’s rebuilt downtown region.
Earlier this month, financial services firm CoreLogic reported that Detroit was the fastest-appreciating home market in the country, exceeding Miami.
“Detroit remains one of the most affordable large metros, with a median home price of less than $200,000,” Dr. Selm Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic, told The Post.
