Featured News

Demand spikes for NFL London games

StubHub has reported a significant rise in domestic and international demand for tickets to the NFL American football league’s games in London, stating it has catered for ticket buyers from 42 different countries for this year’s fixtures.

The NFL is this season staging three regular season games on consecutive weekends at Wembley Stadium, with the opening encounter, the Seattle Seahawks’ 27-3 win over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, drawing an official attendance of 84,922 – a record for an NFL game in the UK.

The series will continue this coming Sunday with the Tennessee Titans taking on the Los Angeles Chargers, before finishing off with a clash between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Philadelphia Eagles on October 28.

StubHub has reported that demand for tickets has risen by 40 per cent this year, with the Jaguars-Eagles meeting the platform’s most in-demand game across the whole season, ahead of games between the Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers, and Atlanta Falcons versus the Eagles in the US.

StubHub has also noted that 37 per cent of sales for the Jaguars v Eagles game come from the latter team’s home state of Pennsylvania, the highest amount of sales from a US state for an NFL London game that the platform has received.

Wayne Grierson, regional manager of the Northern EMEA region at StubHub, told the Evening Standard newspaper: “In recent years, we’ve seen a new trend emerge around the concept of ticket tourism, whereby international fans travel huge distances to see their favourite teams, artists and bands play live – and this is becoming increasingly evident with the NFL, with ticket buyers from 42 different countries making their way to London to watch the games this season.

“That said, it’s not just oversees fans coming to the capital in their droves to watch the games, as we’ve seen huge increase in the number of Brits snapping up tickets, with demand up a massive 333 per cent.

“At StubHub, we support increasing diversity in sports, so we’re pleased to see uptake in American sports by both oversees and local fans, helping to bring a welcomed boost to the economy as the NFL firmly marks its place on the UK sporting calendar.”