Fans searching “Denver Broncos vs New England Patriots” tickets for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game in Denver are running into a major hurdle.
According to 9NEWS Broncos insider Mike Klis, multiple visiting fans trying to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster reported being blocked by a regional restriction tied to billing address.
The message circulating on social media was blunt: due to limited availability, tickets would be sold only to those with a billing address in the Rocky Mountain region, specifically Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota and western Kansas.
For Patriots fans outside that footprint, the primary-market route appears largely closed, leaving the secondary market as the most realistic option.
New England Patriots vs Denver Broncos Ticket Sales Restricted on Ticketmaster
Klis reported that several accounts shared the same Ticketmaster response while attempting to buy tickets for the Patriots vs Broncos matchup.
The restriction is commonly described as geofencing, a process that tracks a transaction using location signals such as an IP address or a buyer’s billing zip code. The goal is simple: prioritize local fans when only a sliver of inventory is available.
And in this case, the Broncos say the supply for single-game tickets is extremely thin.
“As we’ve done for previous AFC Championship Games, the extremely limited amount of single-game tickets on sale for Sunday was restricted to the Rocky Mountain Region to prioritize Broncos fans,” Broncos spokesman Patrick Smyth said in a statement provided to Klis.
Smyth added that more than 98 percent of the Broncos’ season-ticket members opted in for playoff tickets, leaving the remaining inventory — “only a few thousand tickets” — nearly sold out within 24 hours.
That combination helps explain why so many fans searching for Patriots vs Broncos tickets are immediately being pushed to resale listings instead of standard checkout screens.
What It Means for Patriots Fans Trying to Get Into Denver
For New England fans hoping to be in the building, the path is straightforward, and usually expensive.
If you don’t have a qualifying billing address, you’ll likely need to:
- Shop the secondary market (where prices can swing quickly based on demand)
- Find a local connection willing to purchase within the restricted region and transfer tickets through approved platforms
The broader impact is exactly what the Broncos intend in a game with a Super Bowl trip on the line: keep as much of the stadium as possible tilted toward the home crowd.
Why the Broncos Have Used This Policy in Past Postseasons
Klis noted this is not new this season.
The Broncos and Ticketmaster have regularly used geofencing-style restrictions for postseason games dating back to the team’s 2011 AFC Wild Card Game. Klis also reported it was used the previous two times Denver hosted New England in the postseason, when a trip to the Super Bowl was at stake.
So while the screenshots are spreading fast online, the policy itself is familiar, and the Broncos are framing it as a standard playoff practice tied to limited inventory, not a one-off response to this week’s demand.
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