Resale value affordable

How low will Broncos resale tickets go? That’s the question many football fans, buyers and sellers alike, are contemplating as the Broncos wrap up a substandard season with two more home games left to play.

Friday afternoon, “Half Price Game” offers were being made on Ticketmaster — the NFL Ticket Exchange — for Sunday’s home game against the New York Jets. Just under 2,000 tickets were on sale, including a pair of side-by-side tickets in Section 525, the upper north end zone corner, for $39 apiece. Those tickets were each about $10 below face value and the least expensive ticket for sale, at that moment, on Ticketmaster. A total of 34 tickets were available for Section 525, ranging in price from the low of $39 to $235.

A seller on Craigslist, also with two seats on the fifth level but near midfield, Section 535, was touting sunny seats in the east stands, “so stay warm in December,” the sales pitch said. The seller was hoping to get $90 per ticket, or, “make me an offer.”

On StubHub, “Cheap last-minute deals!” were being hawked.

“This is the worst (ticket market) since 2011,” said Nick Casias, a broker with TicketProxy in Denver.

In 2011, the Broncos finished the season at .500 (8-8) under coach John Fox, with Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton splitting quarterback duties. The best the Broncos can finish this season is 7-9.

Denver’s unseasonably warm weather — the temperature at kickoff Sunday should be in the lower 60s under sunny skies — could be propping up late-season Broncos tickets.

“Absolutely, no one would want to go if the weather was bad,” Casias said.

During the Broncos’ Peyton Manning era, when sales were extremely strong and tickets sold far above face value, many fans were shut out. Those fans now have an opportunity.