The reason is because, for political reasons, large events can't charge the "market-efficient" price. Super Bowl tickets cost $850 to $1850 in face value, but

The reason is because, for political reasons, large events can't charge the "market-efficient" price. Super Bowl tickets cost $850 to $1850 in face value, but resold for an average of about $5000. If tickets cost $5000 minimum the game probably would still sell out at some point (though not immediately), but people would be even more angry about the ticket situation. http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/03/news/super-bowl-tickets-price/ http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/03/news/super-bowl-tickets-pric... Blaming it on "insiders getting tickets first" and "bots" is just a way of hiding the fact that it's very deliberately designed to be the best way of handling things now, it's just that nobody likes scarcity.