Average football fans have little hope of attending the Super Bowl on Sunday in Detroit. The face value of tickets for the cheapest seats at Ford Field is $600, and they're sold out. Thousands of seats are reserved for season-ticket holders from Seattle and Pittsburgh as well as corporate sponsors. Prices for some tickets on the secondary market are approaching $4,600.

But about 450 people have found a way to get around all that, and gain access to the most ballyhooed sporting event of the year. Here's how: They made a donation to a local nonprofit group.

They won't get seats and, in fact, they have to work for the privilege -- hawking programs at the stadium. They also have to promise to show up at 8 a.m. and stay until nearly midnight. But for fans ranging from a real-estate executive to a banker to an assembly-line worker, it's worth it.

These donors, dubbed "Distinguished Program Sellers," had to contribute at least $250 to the Parade Co., a charitable group that puts on events to bolster civic pride in Detroit. Parade set about amassing the work force quietly. A committee of 18 people, including automotive executives and a senior official of the Detroit area's chamber of commerce, relied on word-of-mouth among friends and colleagues in assembling the sales force so that someone could vouch for the work ethic of applicants. "We didn't want people who were paying the money to come in and drink," says Francine Pegues, co-chairwoman of the group's Distinguished Program Sellers Committee. Applicants were accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Because the sellers will have special access to the stadium, each was subjected to an FBI security check.

Fans who might otherwise miss out on the Super Bowl are thrilled to have found a way in. Earl Auty, a 51-year-old nurse from Grosse Pointe, Mich., says he would "absolutely not" be attending the game if not for Parade's offer, both because of the high price of tickets and their scant availability. He says he and his brother shelled out a combined $500 for "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot less than half the price."

Even if the program sellers are happy with the deal, it has sparked a bit of a controversy. At previous Super Bowls, the company contracted by the National Football League to sell programs, Facility Merchandising Inc., would ask a local charity to assemble a team of volunteer sellers and then FMI would make a donation to the charity. Similarly, this year, Parade will get about 80 cents from FMI for each $15 program sold, according to Pegues.

However, the nonprofit group isn't turning toward volunteers this Sunday. Instead, people are ponying up money for the program-selling positions. Steve Brener, an FMI spokesman, says that, as far as he knows, this is the first time in the 18 years his company has handled program sales on behalf of the NFL that a charity has effectively sold the volunteer slots.

FMI was surprised by Parade's tactic and, as of next year, it will likely prohibit by contract such "doubling up," according to Mr. Brener.

The NFL, meantime, says it wasn't aware of the charity's "Distinguished Program Sellers" arrangement until last month. It was "not authorized," says NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. The league may be upset because the approach effectively amounts to an alternative vendor selling discounted access to the game.

Parade says the initiative is an innovative way to raise charitable funds. The organization produces Detroit's annual Thanksgiving Day parade and the fireworks display at the International Freedom Festival in June, among other events. It has a yearly operating budget of $4 million that it finances with funds from foundations, private donors and corporate sponsorships.

The fund-raising approach is a brainchild of Parade President Joan LeMahieu, the former general manager of Ford Field. When having lunch with Ms. Pegues last March, Ms. LeMahieu told her the group had been selected to receive a charitable contribution in exchange for amassing a volunteer, program-selling work force. Ms. LeMahieu, according to Ms. Pegues, said she thought she'd be able to get program sellers to pay upward of $75 to gain entry to Ford Field on game day. "I said, 'You could get three times that amount,' " recalls Ms. Pegues. Ms. LeMahieu didn't return repeated calls seeking comment. A Parade spokeswoman says Ms. LeMahieu "wanted to make sure (she) maximized the opportunity" presented by the Super Bowl.

The Distinguished Program Sellers will spend a lot of hours on their feet as they'll be prohibited from sitting on the stadium steps. But if they can find a place to stand with a view of the field, they can watch the game between shifts.

Dwaylon Alexander, a sales representative for an insurance company in Detroit, is willing to put in the work. But he still expects to be able to see most of the game. Otherwise, "why pay that kind of money?" he says. "I've got a 65-inch plasma TV at home."