As expected the Dallas Cowboys led the NFL in ticket sales in 2009. The move to the new, higher capacity Dallas Cowboys Stadium really paid off for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
The Cowboys had regular season total sales of 718,055, averaging 89,757 seats sold per game. These numbers translated to 41.6% gain over the 2008 season. The Washington Redskins also performed well this season, totaling 678,352 and averaging 84,794 per game, filling 92.5% of capacity on average. Coming in at number three were the New York Giants, at 629,615 and averaging 78,702 each game with a typical audience of 98.1% of capacity.
A total of fourteen NFL teams hit a high of eight games with a 98% plus capacity audience. The Denver Broncos, which hit an average of 98.7% of capacity this season, sold out all home games for their 40th straight year.
But it was not good news for all NFL teams. The Jacksonville Jaguars totaled only 397,214 seats sold last season, an average of only 49,652 per game. Audiences hovered around at 73.9%, resulting in a 23.8% loss in sales year over year, the biggest loss for any team this season. To put those numbers in perspective, the Cowboys sold almost twice as many tickets to their games as the Jaguars did. Since the Cowboys have the higher average ticket prices of the two, it is far to say that the Cowboys generated more than double the revenue of the Jags last year.
And that is one reason that there is no labor agreement in place.
The Detroit Lions was another team that really struggled to attract fans last season. With a 49,395 average per game and a total of only 395,162 fans the Lions had an average of 76% capacity. Jacksonville and Detroit were leaders in being under 75% of capacity at any given game, with the Jags having six such games and the Lions four.
But the Oakland Raiders hold the title of weakest total sales for the season. The Raiders had an accumulated 354,276 seats sold, averaging only 44,285 per game. The team came in second for greatest sales loss, down 23.4% this past year.
In all, eleven of the NFL’s teams made gains in ticket sales this year, but it was not enough to offset the losses of seventeen other teams, leaving a net sales loss for the League of 1.1%.
