Baby Doesn’t Get a Free Pass for Super Bowl, Donna Kelce Explains

For many years there’s been a divide among Super Bowl viewers: those showing up for the game and those in it for the commercials. But this year, there’s another team joining the table—those showing up for Taylor Swift. As the pop superstar makes her way to the stands to support her boyfriend and Chief’s tight end Travis Kelce, more fans than ever before will be in attendance or watching from their homes.

As a result, ticket prices are predictably spiking—ballooning to at least four times as much as usual. While these increases certainly have an impact on dedicated fans who have attended games for years, the costs also make a big difference to football’s smallest fans. From newborns to those under two and beyond, the National Football League has a no-exceptions policy for attendees noting that “All persons entering the stadium, regardless of age, must have a ticket for the event.”

“If your child has a heartbeat, you have to pay for them,” Travis and Jason Kelce’s mom Donna Kelce told Today in an interview leading up to the big game. “It doesn’t matter if they were just born. If you have a child, even if you’re holding them the whole time, you have to pay the full price.”

This means while baby often flies for free, in order for the Chief’s tight-end Matt Bushman and his wife Emily to bring their 8-month-old daughter—or, frankly, any other football-loving parent to bring along their bundle of joy—they’d have to shell out several grand just for baby. “So, thankfully my mom’s gonna watch my girls during the game, and it’s all part of the fun of getting organized,” noted Emily Bushman in a TikTok explaining her family’s pre-Super Bowl preparation.

Fans and parents across TikTok chimed in the comments with shock around the baby bombshell. “Tickets for a newborn are insane,” wrote one commenter. “Newborns as a ticket is ridiculous. They aren’t going to be sitting in a chair in the stands,” one parent added. “It’s so sad that they’ve jacked that prices up so much, when my uncle played in the SB in 2000 he brought his parents, 8 sibs, wife and 4 kids,” noted another.

Whether you are watching the big game from your couch or the stands this year, enjoy gathering with family and friends!