A Bowl suite? Have $45,000?
You can still get to Miami to see the Super Bowl, but it would be cheaper to buy Sonny Crockett's Ferrari.
"They're running between four and five grand," Joan Salentine of Karner Travel said of a sports tour package of a game ticket, a plane ticket and a hotel room for three days.
Despite the allure of watching the beloved Bears tilt with the Colts in the balmy climes of Miami, Salentine said there were few people willing to fork over several thousand dollars for the trip.
"We had quite a few calls initially, but people backed off when they realized how expensive it is," she said.
Business was about the same at other travel agencies around town.
"We haven't had anybody really ask for a Super Bowl package," said Jack Patterson of Carlson Wagonlit Travel. "Because it's just crazy, the pricing."
One sports tour company was offering three nights in a hotel, a game ticket and access to pregame and postgame parties for $4,500. But you have to get to Miami on your own steam, he said.
On top of that, he said he had heard of 50-yard line tickets available for $10,000 apiece and access to a suite for $45,000.
"It's kind of hard to imagine anyone who would do that," he said.
Barb Snyder of Barb's Holiday Travel says she has yet to come across a customer for a Super Bowl package.
"There are people out there, I guess, but not in our area," she said.
Snyder had a tour featuring four nights in a beach-front hotel, a game-day brunch and a ticket to the game for $4,295. Rooms were going for $500 a night, and game tickets alone ranged from $3,250 to $8,000.
The packages were not moving, but flights and hotels -- without tickets to the game -- were being sold at steep prices.
"They were buying them last week," said Diane Corcoran of Cornolo Travel Agency in Lockport.
The going rate for hotels was $400 to $500 a night, Corcoran said, and fans were "swiping them up because they had (game) tickets."
"The last call I got was Friday," she said. "People are giving up because I think they realize (the price) was ridiculous."
A little preparation could have saved some money, Corcoran said, although it would have been a leap of faith to book a flight and a hotel months before the Bears clinched their berth in the big game.
Patterson himself may not even catch the game on television. But since he is heading to Jamaica, he doesn't particularly mind.
"If the game's not on TV, I'm not going to cry my eyes out," he said. "I'm going to sit on the beach and smoke a cigar and drink a beer."
Contact Joe Hosey at (815) 729-6054 or jhosey@scn1.com