7 Big Things You Can Buy With the $12K it Would Cost You to See the Eagles in the Super Bowl

If you’re disappointed that you can’t make it to the Super Bowl, have no fear. We’ve compiled a list of seven other ways to spend the $12,000 it would cost to see the Birds play the Chiefs in person.

Members of Steelers Nation like US Sen. John Fetterman may not want to read this, but the Philadelphia Eagles are facing the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl on Feb. 12. It’s the Eagles’ second Super Bowl appearance in the last five years (they upset the New England Patriots in 2018) and fourth in franchise history. Eagles fans are pretty excited about all of this.

Many Birds fans are chomping at the bit to travel to Glendale, Az. to see the game in person, but the cost of making the trip is substantial. Some of the best seats in State Farm Stadium go for tens of thousands of dollars, and even the cheapest seats available can’t be found for less than $5,000. With travel and lodging factored in, it rounds up to just over $12,000 for two people to take the trip from Philadelphia.

Chances are if you’re a diehard fan who scrapes together the necessary $12,000 for a budget-level Super Bowl trip, there’s no talking you out of it. Fair enough. But for the sake of due diligence, it’s worth crunching the numbers and considering what else you could buy with that money. We did the math, and here’s what we found:

Tickets to 40 Eagles Games at the Linc

While these may not be for the “big game,” $12,000 is still enough to see every Eagles home game (provided prices don’t get jacked way up) for the next four seasons and change. 

The average Eagles ticket will run at about $300, but savvy sports fans can find them for much lower in the secondary market. 

This means you could theoretically go to almost a decade of Eagles in Philly instead of just one very big game across the country. If you’re a fan of quantity over quality, this might be the bargain for you. 

A 15 Person Trip to Hersheypark

Attending the Super Bowl may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the finale of arguably the best Eagles season ever, but have you considered taking your entire extended family to Hersheypark for a weekend? 

Taking a small fleet of cars on a caravan to the Sweetest Place on Earth would cost you around $200 in gas, (not including road trip snacks) and the tickets would cost close to $700, if you buy them in bulk. 

That leaves you roughly $11,000 to spend on food, souvenirs, and single room lodging for every member of your party at the five-star Hotel Hershey. It may be a disappointment compared to witnessing the Super Bowl in person, but I’m sure you’ll be able to watch the game in the hotel bar. 

1,000 Cheesesteaks

Using Delessandro’s $13 sandwich as a base, we determined that you could buy 925 cheesesteaks from the legendary Philadelphia shop for the total cost of attending the Super Bowl; and a lot more if you go someplace cheaper. 

To put that in perspective, a full cheesesteak is close to one foot in length; which means that if you stacked every single cheesesteak end to end they would be taller than the Eiffel Tower. That’s a bit much for even the most die-hard fans of the iconic sandwich. 

Three-and-a-Half Years of Groceries 

The price of a Super Bowl trip can buy you a massive amount of food. The average Pennsylvanian spends approximately $270 on groceries monthly, meaning that you wouldn’t have to worry about egg prices until the Eagles are (hopefully) in their next Super Bowl. 

A Car

While it won’t be a brand new Porsche, you can buy a car for less than $12,000. Used car lots around the state sell perfectly fine cars for almost half of the price of a trip to the Super Bowl. Buy yourself two used Hyundais. Bonus: You can listen to Merrill Reese and Mike Quick call the game on the car radio.

A Semester of College 

While this doesn’t cover food and housing, plenty of colleges in the Pennsylvania state system have tuition for under $12,000. A semester at Bloomsburg University would set you back $7,716 with $3,266 in fees for a total of $10,982, leaving you with over a thousand dollars to spare for books and other educational necessities. 

Instead of one weekend of competition, that money could buy you an entire semester worth of scintillating education, fun-filled memories, and enough stress about finals to make you forget about the whole game. 

Six Months of Rent in Philadelphia

As great as football is, you can live without it. That’s not the case with having a roof over your head. The average monthly rent for an apartment in Philadelphia hovers around $2,000, which means that instead of Super Bowl tickets you could have a place to live for half a year in neighborhoods like Fishtown, Manayunk, and Chestnut Hill. 

Sure, you won’t be able to watch Jalen Hurts crushing the hopes and dreams of foolish Kansas City fans in person, but a place to keep out of the rain isn’t half bad.