Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs was named the Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player this year, easily outdistancing Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles.
On Thursday night, Patrick Mahomes, 27, won the MVP award for the second time in his six-year career, receiving 48 of the 50 first-place votes and 490 points. Hurts and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen each received one first-place vote and Hurts finished second with 193 points.
Mahomes thanked his teammates, coaching staff, and the Kansas City organization in a pre-recorded statement.
“Every day, we give everything we have to go for the ultimate goal, the Super Bowl. Let’s keep going for that dream this weekend.”
Patrick Mahomes finished the regular season with 5,614 yards in passing, rushing, and receiving – yes, the all-pro quarterback caught one pass for six yards. His total yardage surpassed Drew Brees’ previous record of 5,562 yards.
The Super Bowl will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. This year’s Super Bowl will be historic in that it will feature two Black starting quarterbacks for the first time.
Mahomes received the award at the NFL’s annual awards ceremony. Other notable winners included the New York Giants’ Brian Daboll as coach of the year and the Seattle Seahawks’ Geno Smith as Comeback Player of the Year.
The Dallas Cowboys Dak Prescott was named the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year. The Man of the Year award is given to the player recognized for their community service and season in the league.
Super Bowl Tickets Plummet 30 Percent
This week, the inventory of Super Bowl 2023 tickets began to pile up, and prices have steadily reflected it. Tickets to see the Kansas City Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles have gradually decreased in price in every 24-hour window since Sunday night after coming into this week hot.
Yahoo News reports data from multiple secondary ticket platforms; the resulting slide has driven “get in” prices for the cheapest possible seats down 30% — from nearly $6,000 late Sunday to around $4,200 Thursday afternoon.
What’s the reason? According to data from online marketplace TicketIQ, daily inventory across the market increased by nearly 31% from Saturday to Tuesday, from around 2,600 available seats to nearly 3,400.
“With the price drop, Super Bowl 57 is the fifth-most expensive Super Bowl we’ve tracked,” TicketIQ CEO Jesse Lawrence said.
Interestingly, as of Thursday afternoon, the marketplace’s data puts this year’s Super Bowl in a virtual tie with last year’s in terms of the average ticket price (plus brokerage fees), with Super Bowl LVI settling in at $6,750 per seat versus $6,783 for Super Bowl LVII.
While some other sites have slightly different data on that average, the numbers all agree: This year’s average ticket price may fall below last season’s and end up being the cheapest average ticket since the New England Patriots faced the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta.
According to TicketIQ data, the average ticket price that season was $5,653. The “get in” price of $4,259 for this year’s game would still have to drop significantly to fall below the cheapest seats in last year’s game, which leveled off and settled at $3,914.
Will the prices fall further? How demand affects inventory over the next three days will ultimately determine that. After peaking at just over 3,400 on Tuesday, available seats on the market appeared to have leveled off and were hovering steadily at 3,200 as of Thursday afternoon.
That’s a fairly solid inventory level, but there is some expectation of a late-arriving buyer influx beginning Thursday, as holdouts who didn’t plan to spend extra vacation time in the Phoenix area will be arriving in the next 48 hours looking for seats.
“With only three days until game day, we’re seeing sales pick up, and prices drop — the last 24 hours saw the biggest jump in sales than any other 24-hour period this week on StubHub,” said Adam Budelli, StubHub’s director of partnerships and business development. “We expect ticket prices to level out, so if you see a ticket in your price range, we recommend purchasing it now because you never know how long that ticket will last.”
