Oooh, that’s gotta hurt … the budget

To reinforce the beauty of your local sports book, tickets to the actual Super Bowl were averaging around $3,200 last week.

On Wednesday, Cirque du Soleil offered a media preview of its own Super Bowl, a one-of-a-kind benefit using cast members from all its Las Vegas shows.

One Night for One Drop at Bellagio on March 22 benefits Cirque founder Guy Laliberte's One Drop foundation for clean water initiatives. Tickets start at $1,500.

While no one will be there who can't afford it, director Krista Monson said raising expectations so high is indeed something to lose sleep over.

"I'm not going to lie to you, it's a very serious quest that we set for ourselves. We're very aware of that."

Of course, she adds, "It is a fundraiser. People realize they are giving to a cause." That's often the case for big-ticket events, including Andre Agassi's annual Grand Slam for Children. At least some of it is deductible, between you and your accountant.

Still, Super Bowl Sunday is a fun day to look back on some "Greatest Hits - To the Wallet" for concerts without such noble ambitions.

■ Las Vegas speculators would prefer to forget the Millennium, or at least wildly overpriced concerts on New Year's of 1999. But Barbra Streisand did OK, with tickets topping out at $2,500 at the MGM Grand Garden.

That made a relative bargain of her 1993 return to live performing after a 20-year break. Tickets peaked at $1,000 for her New Year's Eve inauguration of the MGM arena.

■ Paul McCartney at The Joint in April 2009: It cost $195 to $750 to help the cute Beatle open the new concert hall at the Hard Rock Hotel.

■ Madonna sustained both her career and her ticket prices: $350 for her MGM Grand debut in 2001, cresting at $405 in 2006, but down to a top price of $357 in 2008.

■ When the Rolling Stones played the Hard Rock in 1997, Mick Jagger told an interviewer that no one who couldn't afford the $300 or $500 tickets would buy them, so he didn't worry.

But a lot of these old records were based on what's apparently becoming a quaint system of tiered, standardized pricing. A secondary ticket vendor who keeps a close eye on this stuff points me to the "Platinum" pricing for the next Eagles concert March 23, the night after One Drop.

There, prices fluctuate and can change daily. A top ticket of $795 on Wednesday was down from $950, and another seat dropped from $399 to $299.

Once, you needed a sleeping bag to camp out for good tickets. Then you needed a trust fund. Now you need a day trader.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.