As of Tuesday, ticket prices for the game were as high as $ 4,750 each at Ace, with a "cheap" seat available for $ 475; the average ticket was priced at $ 1,640, making it the most expensive regular-season game in the history of the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins, according to Ace's records.
Only one playoff game, Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals, when the Bruins lost to the Blackhawks by $ 2,008, has surpassed Brady's game, with five days in the secondary market yet to be played. The current price for the Patriots-Buccaneers would exceed the last time the Red Sox achieved a championship at Fenway Park ($ 1,445 for Game 6 of the 2013 World Series) and when the Celtics won the NBA title in 2008 ($ 1,505 ).
A Super Bowl game has never been played in New England, so you can't make a fair comparison to another Patriots playoff game. But considering that the current record for average ticket prices for any Patriots game was $ 686 for a Cowboys visit two years ago and the average ticket price for a Patriots game in recent years has been $ At around $ 250, the magnitude of this game stands out.
What drives that has a lot to do with Brady's long, and now complicated, history with New England fans, Holzman said.
“This is someone we thought we would never see again, and as far as the schedule, we are seeing it, so it combines with the situation where we could never say goodbye and thank them, and there are a lot of people who wish we had. the opportunity to say that, ”said Holzma. "Now they have that opportunity."
Being one of 65,878 Gillette fans is an experience that will not be shared by the vast majority of Patriots fans, who will tune in to the national television broadcast on NBC.
Chris Wayland, general manager of NBC 10, owned by Boston's NBCUniversal, as well as NBCUniversal's three other local businesses, compared the impact to the final NFL standard.
"Wow, we're basically getting two Super Bowls in one season, one with this game and then the other in February on NBC," Wayland said of his initial reaction to hearing that Brady's game would air on NBC. "We were obviously delighted for all the reasons."
NBC 10 has the opportunity to sell approximately a dozen local commercials spread over pregame, ingame and postgame coverage. At a rate likely to triple that of any other regular season game, NBC 10 will get an unprecedented season bonus.
“It will be a great income opportunity for us,” said Wayland. "In terms of revenue impact locally for us, it will have an impact similar to what a Super Bowl game would have for us, which is amazing."
Digital advertising on NBC websites is also growing, and NBC floods its websites with videos and articles about Brady as often as possible. Wayland expects that digital numbers "will probably be the highest print levels [i.e. clicks] maybe we've seen it sometime. "
The game is driving new advertisers for limited TV ads, as those companies are "moving forward to tap into this audience," Wayland said.
The audience is expected to be immense, Wayland said, closing in on Super Bowl viewership numbers.
"We anticipate here in Boston, because of the enormity of the game, probably not exactly Super Bowl type numbers, but probably a non-Patriots Super Bowl number," Wayland said. “This will be by far the Patriots' highest rated non-Super Bowl game, perhaps in history. That would be my guess. "
Fanatics, the NFL's official e-commerce partner, did not project the impact the Brady game will have on merchandise sales. But he noted that since the start of the regular season, Brady, followed by Patriots rookie quarterback Mac Jones, were the two best-selling players among everybody Sports leagues for all product categories, including jerseys, t-shirts and memorabilia. After Tampa Bay and Los Angeles, Boston ranks as Brady's third best-selling market.
Not surprisingly, Brady's own business empire is seizing the opportunity.
His TB12 brand offers a $ 35 white t-shirt that advertises "The Return." With "QB" and the "TB12" logo floating above a large blue "12" on the front, and "Brady" above the "12" on the back, the jersey also has a gray insole on the inside that reads " The Return, TB x NE 10/3. ″
While sports betting is not legal in Massachusetts, in all 26 states and Washington, DC, where it is allowed, the game is expected to generate the most money (total money bet) of any game this young season.
"Of course, the whole narrative, all the hype that surrounds it, definitely drives the dollar stakes in the game," said John Sheeran, director of risk and trading at FanDuel.
By late Tuesday morning, FanDuel had taken about 3,000 bets on the game, with the Patriots 6½ points underdog, and "that's a lot of bets for a Tuesday morning," Sheeran said.
More than 2,850 of those bets were on the Bucs, "a huge, huge percentage that I doubt will change," he said. "People tend to bet more with their heads than with their hearts when it comes to these games, and I would be surprised if a lot of Patriots fans haven't already bet on Brady and the Buccaneers."
You can reach Michael Silverman at michael.silverman@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeSilvermanBB.
