Not So Cheap Cheap Seats: Most Expensive NFL Games 2023

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Most expensive NFL games of 2023 will break your budget

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A: When we’re talking about the most expensive NFL games of 2023.

Q: When is “cheap” anything but cheap?

Owing to the nature of the secondary ticket market, NFL ticket prices are subject to extreme cost variations.

Unlike fixed face value costs, resale prices are determined by ever-fluctuating supply & demand. This results in inordinate highs and very low lows.

To wit:

PriceAverageHighestLowestAvg. Deviation
Face value (2022)$112$153 (+37%)$85 (-24%)13.3
Resale (2023 cheapest available)$169$402 (+138%)$76 (-55%)69.6

To reiterate, the above figures are averages for the course of the regular season, which should prepare you for single-game deviations.

Even still, the numbers are eye-popping for…

The 10 most expensive NFL games of 2023

Median PriceHome TeamOpponentWeek #Lowest PriceHighest Price
$619.43Las VegasPittsburgh3$547.00$695.60
$551.00PhiladelphiaSan Francisco13$515.95$687.75
$548.00DallasPhiladelphia14$504.00$660.24
$546.84PhiladelphiaDallas9$500.00$644.00
$525.25San FranciscoDallas5$467.84$606.00
$513.22Kansas CityPhiladelphia11$456.00$603.90
$489.00Las VegasGreen Bay5$469.00$569.00
$486.00PhiladelphiaBuffalo12$454.61$563.30
$456.00New EnglandPhiladelphia1$433.47$527.00
$446.95DallasDetroit17$414.00$521.38

Markedly, these are not the overall averages for game tickets. They are in fact the median prices for the cheapest available seats.

That’s right. If you wanted to attend the Steelers-Raiders game back in Week 3, it would have cost you 620 bucks to sit in the 400-level.

To put that number in perspective,

  • It’s more than the average price for a ticket to Super Bowl XXXIX ($600¹),
  • And about the same as the 2022 FCI for the Denver Broncos ($622²), or more than 21 other teams that year.

¹ Super Bowl Ticket Prices the Year You Were Born (cheapism.com)

² teammarketing.com

Now on the other extreme, you have the…

5 least expensive NFL games of 2023

Median PriceVisiting TeamHome TeamWeek No.Highest PriceLowest Price
$16.00AtlantaCarolina15$22.00$12.00
$16.50Tampa BayCarolina18$22.00$15.00
$18.00SeattleArizona18$24.00$15.00
$25.90AtlantaArizona10$31.00$21.00
$27.20BaltimoreArizona8$36.00$15.00

Notably, less than a handful of teams dominate both lists.

Indeed, the Philadelphia Eagles were involved in 6 of the 10 most expensive games – 3 times each as the visiting team and as the host.

Additionally, you have the Cowboys (4x), the 49ers (2), and the Raiders (2). From the least expensive list, you have the Cardinals (3x), Panthers (2), and Falcons (2).

With this in mind, I started to wonder what – aside from team success & popularity – other factors could influence secondary market prices for individual games.

NFL Ticket Pricing: What Influences the Cost

In order to do that, I put together a list of median (cheapest available) ticket prices by road team. Moreover, I included potentially correlative data such as win total, road attendance rank, & home game price rank:

TeamMedian PriceHome Price RankRoad Attendance RankWins
Arizona$115.6529264
Atlanta$78.9230197
Baltimore$163.26222913
Buffalo$294.6691511
Carolina$108.4631322
Chicago$142.4910217
Cincinnati$170.4415209
Cleveland$106.27251011
Dallas$295.2651112
Denver$185.2116278
Detroit$206.374512
Green Bay$273.3613189
Houston$72.51242310
Indianapolis$63.3927319
Jacksonville$80.9226309
Kansas City$216.553811
LA Chargers$159.592395
LA Rams$123.3620610
Las Vegas$204.232178
Miami$200.8272511
Minnesota$191.1214167
New England$181.74814
New Orleans$135.0832139
NY Giants$177.1718146
NY Jets$182.491747
Philadelphia$306.781211
Pittsburgh$260.35122410
San Francisco$220.0362212
Seattle$128.671179
Tampa Bay$96.4221129
Tennessee$82.5928286
Washington$139.261934

Key takeaways

  • The strongest correlation to a team’s road ticket prices was in fact their home ticket prices (-.786).
  • Won-loss record? A moderate .388.
  • Average road attendance held the weakest correlation to price (-.328).

Indeed, of the top 10 teams in terms of highest road price, only 2 ranked outside the top 10 for home ticket price. Unsurprisingly, those 2 teams were Pittsburgh (12) & Green Bay (13), which are notorious for their traveling fan bases.

Given that I’ve talked about how more wins = higher ticket prices, it’s a bit of a surprise that there was a considerably weaker correlation. Still, the fact remains that the teams with the 10 highest road prices averaged 10.7 wins, while the 10 lowest averaged 7.7.

Conclusion

  • Secondary market NFL ticket prices are influenced by a variety of factors, and this makes it difficult to anticipate costs.These include, among others, team success, opponent, & time of year. When is The Best Time to Buy NFL Tickets?
  • However, for NFL fans that want to avoid cheap seat prices of $400 & up, there are two strong predictors for individual game pricing: Home ticket price and wins. The weighted average for ticket price & wins for all the teams that comprised 10 most expensive NFL games of 2023: $307.52 & 10.55.
  • Specifically, there’s 3 teams with fan bases that are known for traveling to road games: Buffalo, Green Bay, & Pittsburgh. The combined average cheapest ticket for their road games was $276.12, or $87.48 more than their home prices.
  • Ultimately, the need to find an economical NFL ticket site is paramount when it comes to the high-priced games. Specifically, for the 10 most expensive games, one reseller would have saved you up to $126 per seat, on average. For a family of 4, that’s an astounding 504 bucks!

Back to: How Much Can I Save on NFL Tickets?

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