NFL Teams With Plunging Ticket Prices

As the NFL season moves past the halfway point, most teams have already established themselves as either a playoff contender or an also-ran. Those teams that are winning games are generating excitement among their fans, and demand for tickets is rising. Meanwhile, many of those teams that are likely to be on the outside looking in once the playoffs begin are seeing demand and prices for tickets drop dramatically.

Secondary market ticket resource TiqIQ provided 24/7 Wall St. with the average ticket price for each NFL team at the beginning of the season and the average ticket price after 10 weeks of play. While most teams’ ticket prices have declined, ticket prices of some teams have just plummeted. In Tampa Bay, which won its first game on Monday, the average price fell from $161 in week one to just $98 last week, a nearly 40% decrease. Based on data provided by online ticket resource TiqIQ, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 NFL teams with the biggest decline in ticket prices this season.

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The average ticket prices of all but five NFL teams have dropped over the first 10 weeks of the 2013 season, but this does not mean people have lost interest in the NFL. TiqIQ's Jesse Lawrence explained, "The norm is that ticket market gravity is always down. The nature of the beast is that brokers list high early, and then as the event gets closer, prices go down." However, any team with more than a 10% decline in prices is likely experiencing a real decline in interest, Lawrence said.

According to Lawrence, the biggest factor behind major changes in ticket prices is whether a team exceeds expectations or fails to live up to them. The team with the biggest increase in ticket prices — from $115 at the start of the season to $173 last week, a more than 50% increase — is the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are one of the most surprisingly good teams in recent memory. After earning the worst record in the NFL with just two wins last season, the team is currently undefeated in its first nine games.

Many of the teams with the biggest ticket price declines have failed to meet expectations. The Green Bay Packers and the Atlanta Falcons were picked by many to be Super Bowl contenders before the start of the season. Green Bay isn’t even in a playoff spot at the moment, and Atlanta has won just two games.

Other teams with declining ticket prices did not necessarily have high expectations going into the season, but they have eliminated any hope that they might surprise and be better than anticipated. Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, and St. Louis all had losing records last season. This season, they have a combined record of just 6-20.

Nearly every team with the biggest decline in ticket prices has a disappointing record so far this season. The one exception is the New England Patriots. While the Patriots have only lost two games this year, they won only their last game in a convincing fashion. Lawrence explained that this may have something to do with the city's recent World Series victory. "I think that Boston fans spent a lot of money on Red Sox tickets so they may be a little less willing to shell out 300 bucks or 400 bucks on Patriots tickets," Lawrence said. "There's only so many dollars that fans can spend on disposable ticketing events and the Red Sox definitely soaked up a lot of that."

To identify the teams with the biggest decline in ticket prices, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the average ticket price for each NFL team just before the season started, and then the average ticket price as of week 10. The teams with the biggest percentage decline in average price over this time made our list. All ticket price data were provided by TiqIQ. Additional statistics, including win-loss records, attendance statistics, injuries and player performance, came from ESPN.com, NFL.com and pro-football-reference.com.