Tom Brady (12) of the Buccaneers shakes hands with Patrick Mahomes (15) of the Chiefs after the regular season game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on November 29, 2020 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Cliff Welch | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images
Tickets for the upcoming NFL season are selling at a lower average price on secondary market platform SeatGeek out of the gate than they were a 12 months ago, the corporate said, but they’re still higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Ticket prices averaged $307 immediately following the discharge of the NFL’s schedule Thursday. Fans were particularly desirous about marquee matchups, similar to star quarterback Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs taking over NFL legend Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That price is down from a median of $411 out the gate last 12 months, but it surely’s higher than the typical of $305 in 2020, when games were restricted as a consequence of Covid. The common in 2019 was $258. Ticket prices often fluctuate throughout the NFL season as demand changes.
The high ticket prices are a sign that folks are still spending big on live entertainment and sports despite inflation being at a 40-year high. “I feel people want high-end experiences, need to get out, and so they’ve been pent-up for several years now,” Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” He added, “People need to get out, they need to have experiences. They need to live life somewhat bit.”
SeatGeek CEO Jack Groetzinger, In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, predicted the “next few years for live entertainment shall be gangbuster years.”
SeatGeek said the Chiefs versus Bucs in Week 4 – featuring Mahomes and Brady – is the top-selling game to date. It’s a rematch of Super Bowl LV in 2021, when the Buccaneers beat the Chiefs, 31-9. The costliest seat for the Oct. 2 game surpassed $3,000 entering Friday.
The legendary NFL quarterback appeared to retire this offseason before announcing in April that he planned to return, in spite of everything. When finally decides to step away, Brady will transition to TV after he agreed to a cope with Fox Sports for greater than $300 million.
Tickets to see the Dallas Cowboys, Bills, Rams, and Cincinnati Bengals round out SeatGeek’s top five selling teams entering the weekend.
Rival ticket company Vivid Seats said tickets for Russell Wilson’s return to Seattle on Sept. 12 saw among the quickest demand out of the gate. Prices for this game averaged $451 per ticket. The Seahawks traded their longtime quarterback to the Broncos in March. And Wilson’s return may very well be essentially the most in-demand Seahawks ticket since 2019, Vivid Seats projected.
The NFL kicks off its 18-week schedule with the Buffalo Bills visiting the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 8 at SoFi Stadium. The sport will air on the NBC network, whose parent company, NBCUniversal, also owns CNBC.
