Initials night for fans, media

‘Super Bowl Opening Night,’ a primetime TV event, will be Monday.

When the Rams and Patriots arrive in Atlanta next week, the first major item on their itinerary will be “Super Bowl Opening Night,” a combination of press conference, media circus and fan experience.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the NFL will transform the Super Bowl event formerly known as Media Day into a primetime show. Billed as the teams’ public premiere in Atlanta, the event is scheduled for State Farm Arena beginning at 7 p.m. Monday.

“It’s a press conference with a little bit of humor and entertainment on top of it,” said Jon Barker, NFL vice president of event operations and production. He said a crowd of “probably about 8,000” is expected for the event. Tickets are $29 and

available at Ticketmaster. com. The spectacle will be televised on NFL Network and CBS Sports Network.

The format, Barker said, will go like this: First, the NFC champion Rams will be introduced and take questions from thousands of media members on the arena floor for an hour. Then, coaches and captains from both teams will appear together on stage. And finally, the AFC champion Patriots will take their turn answering questions from the media for an hour.

The overlap in the middle of the event “will be the only time prior to the game these two teams will be in the same building at the same time,” Barker said. Fans in attendance will be given radios on which they can listen to player inter- views taking place at indi- vidual podiums.

Former NFL players will be available for autographs in the concourses. Falcons cheerleaders and mascots will be there. And one fan will win two tickets to Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Feb. 3.

“What we have done is take steps to make sure fans are engaged and having a positive experience,” Barker said. “It’s more than just coming and sitting in seats. There’s going to be a lot going on in that building.”

Super Bowl Media Day, long known for the offbeat questions and answers it generated, used to be held on the Tuesday morning or afternoon before the game. But it was renamed and rebranded as a primetime Monday night event starting with Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, Calif., in 2016.

Some modifications will be made in the newly renovated State Farm Arena to accommodate the event. “We’ll build a temporary raised floor in the arena and will build ramps and what we’re calling viewing platforms out into that floor to get fans closer to what’s hap- pening,” Barker said.

Because most out-of-town fans who attend the Super Bowl will arrive later next week, the Opening Night crowd is expected to consist largely of Atlanta-area resi- dents, Barker said. The arena doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

Barker, who was in Atlanta all of last week, also addressed the NFL’s preparations for Super Bowl events in general, including the game itself: “We’re in really good shape,” he said. “We’re on track in (Mercedes-Benz Stadium). We’re on track exter- nally. We’re really comfortable — as long as the weather holds out, I can’t foresee anything that is going to get in our way.”

Ticket prices: Super Bowl LIII ticket prices on the secondary market moved slightly in response to the outcomes of Sunday’s confer- ence championship games.

Brett Goldberg, co-CEO of TickPick, said the average price for tickets to the Feb. 3 game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium declined on his marketplace from $6,920 before Sunday’s games to $6,812 on Monday morning. But he said the low — or “get-in” — price increased from about $3,450 to $3,589. “I think the averages coming down are due to new inventory coming on the market,” Goldberg said. “And the cheapest ‘get-ins’ increasing is due to the typical spike in sales the day after the teams are (determined).”

Overall, though, Goldberg perceives ticket demand for the Rams-Patriots matchup to be lower than last year’s Super Bowl between the Patriots and Eagles. He attributed that to “the fanatic Eagles fans compared to the newer Rams fan base.”