It’s more contentious than who will win this year’s Super Bowl – how have NFL ticket sales fared since the furore over last weekend’s ‘take a knee’ protest.
Online ticket reseller TickPick said sales have dropped 17.9 per cent compared to week two of the season, according to the Washington Examiner newspaper.
The company said the fall is far more dramatic than the usual week three fall in demand, with the dip in 2016 at just 10.8 per cent.
The decrease comes after players from teams across the league chose to kneel during the playing of the US national anthem. While some were supportive of the gesture apparently opposing police brutality against black Americans, many fans believe it is disrespectful. President Trump called on players taking part in the protest to be sacked.
“We have seen a massive decrease in NFL ticket purchases this past week in comparison to years past,” said TickPick director of client relations Jack Slingland.
“Week 3 seems to usually have less ticket orders than week two, but this year ticket purchases are down more than seven per cent from this time last year.”
“While we can’t specify if this decrease is due to the president’s comments, player and owner protests, play on the field, or simply the continued division of consumer’s media attention, the conversation around the NFL this week has focused on the president’s comments as well as the players’ and owners’ reaction.
“As viewers continue to abandon their NFL Sunday habits, both the number of ticket sales and the purchase price of tickets will drop.”
However, SeatGeek told Bloomberg that ticket sales for this weekend’s games are very much like those in the first two weeks of the season. Median prices for games this weekend are about eight per cent higher than they were for last weekend’s games, while volume is flat.
“We have not seen a noticeable net impact on the demand for NFL tickets, one way or the other,” said SeatGeek content analyst Chris Leyden. “This does not mean there has been no impact, but rather that any sort of boycott impact has been evened out by the added publicity and support for the sport.”
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