NFL Ticket Prices by Team: Top Surgers & Slumpers in 2023

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When it comes to NFL ticket prices by team, each year brings significant changes.

Who had the biggest gains & losses in 2023?

What does it mean for you??

Unlike face value costs, NFL ticket prices on the secondary market can be extremely volatile.

For the 2022 season, the most expensive face value ticket (Las Vegas Raiders, $153) was 81% more than the cheapest (Jacksonville Jaguars, $85).

Furthermore, a Raiders ticket was 37% above average, while Jacksonville was 24% below average.

Now look at how secondary market prices differ:

• The median cheapest available ticket for a Philadelphia Eagles game in 2023 was $401.62. That figure is 429% more than the median least expensive seat (New Orleans Saints, $75.85).
• $401.62 is also 137% above the norm for all teams.
• On the opposite extreme is the Saints ticket price, which was 55% below average.

Top 5 Surgers

The median cost of the cheapest available NFL ticket went from $120 in 2022 to $169 last season, a 41% increase. While the teams that top the list of biggest increases won’t surprise you, the difference in price can be shocking:

1. Detroit Lions +331%
2. Houston Texans +153%
3. Kansas City Chiefs +149%
4. San Francisco 49ers +125%
5. Minnesota Vikings +124%

Which NFL teams have the most expensive tickets in 2023?

Detroit Lions

The Lions…

• Haven’t won an NFL championship since 1957.
• Own a 9-game postseason losing streak.
• Had their first winning season last year since 2017.

In view of the above, you have a success-starved fan base, in which you’d have to be over 40 to remember the last time their team won a playoff game.

Nevertheless, things were looking up heading into the 2023 season. The Lions had a talented young core, a fiery head coach, and had won 8 of their last 10 games in 2022.

Small wonder then, that their secondary market ticket prices took a leap. But a 331% increase (+$210.77) is unheard of.

Houston Texans

What a difference a couple of years can make.

In 2021, the Texans won 4 games, ranked 17th in home attendance, and unsurprisingly, had the least expensive median cheap seat price ($26.55)

For the 2022 season, it was 3 wins, 19th in attendance, and a $39.64 median price.

2023? The team added a young, highly-touted head coach in DeMeco Ryans and #2 draft pick CJ Stroud. Consequently, secondary market ticket prices reached triple digits for the first time in years.

Kansas City Chiefs

The following list denotes the change in secondary market ticket prices for the last 7 Super Bowl winners, excluding the COVID 2020 regular season:

• Kansas City 2023, +149%
• Los Angeles Rams 2022, -9%
• Kansas City 2020, +58%
• New England 2019, +10%
• Philadelphia 2018, +33% 
• New England 2017, +38%
• Denver 2016, +43%

The ticket prices for the winning Super Bowl teams from 2016-2022 increased by an average of 29% the following year. Even if you exclude the anomaly that is the 2022 LA Rams, the average increase is still 36%.

To what can we attribute the spike of $210 for Chiefs tickets in 2023? For one, there’s the opportunity of becoming just the seventh team to win 4 Super Bowls. Note: as of this writing, there’s a 47.6% chance of that, according to oddsmakers

Of course, there’s also this:

San Francisco 49ers

While the Niners have made it to 6 conference championship games & 2 Super Bowls since 2011, they haven’t been SB Champs since 1994. For a franchise with such a glorious history, it probably feels a lot longer than that.

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings are a team that…

• Finished first in the NFC North last season with a 13-4 record,
• Boasts one of the league’s best offensive playmakers in Justin Jefferson,
• Plays in US Bank Stadium, the #1 ranked NFL venue according to The Athletic.

Still, I don’t think the team’s fans were expecting secondary market tickets to increase by 99 bucks.

Bottom 5 Slumpers

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, -43%
2. Tennessee Titans, -34%
3. Green Bay Packers, -20%
4. New Orleans Saints, -19%
5. Carolina Panthers, -14%

What do these teams have in common? Their average regular season win total for 2022 was 6.2, although the Bucs did manage to win their division.

And speaking of win totals…

More wins = higher NFL ticket prices by team

This is hardly a revelation, as there’s long been a strong correlation between regular-season wins and ticket prices.

Nevertheless, here’s how NFL ticket prices by team in 2023 break down in terms of wins:

Bottom line

If your team is good, you’ll have to pay – and pay big – to go to a home game.

Overall, the median cheap seat price rose by 40.8% from last season. But for teams that won 11 or more games, the cost actually doubled.

Furthermore, these teams were responsible for some of the most ridiculously expensive single-game tickets in the 2023 regular season:

• Dallas at San Francisco, Week 5 – Median price for the cheapest available seat: $525.25.
• Philadelphia at Kansas City, Week 11 – $513.22.

Notably, the average NFL fan realizes that a ticket for the Super Bowl is out of reach. But to be priced out of regular season games?!

Pointedly, the cost of being an NFL fan is more prohibitive than ever. As a result, you could probably use some help, even if you don’t care to admit it.

With that in mind, here are some resources that will help make NFL ticket prices more affordable:

• Sites With The Cheapest Fees for NFL Tickets
• The Best Time to Buy NFL Tickets
• How To Find The Cheapest NFL Tickets
• The Best Place to Buy NFL Tickets For Each Team

Conclusion

• The median cost of an NFL ticket on the secondary market went up by 41%.
• While this was bad enough, it’s even worse for fans of winning teams.
• Resale ticket prices are determined by a variety of factors, but the biggest historical indicator is regular season wins:
  • In 2023, the median ticket price for teams that won 11 or more games was 42% above average.
  • The median cost for 7 to 10-win teams was 9.9% below average.
  • For teams that had 6 wins or fewer, it was 31% below average.

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