NFL Teams with the Most and Least Expensive Tickets (on the Resale Market)

With the NFL season coming up, football fans are making plans to see their favorite teams. Whether for a home game or a trip to a visiting city, fans will shell out hundreds (or more) for tickets on the secondary market. But what teams will cost the most, and which visiting teams will drive up prices in your home stadium?

To find out which teams command the highest prices, FinanceBuzz analyzed over 1.6 million resale tickets sold during the 2021-2022 football season. Using data from SeatData.io, we determined which teams have the most and least expensive tickets — both at home and on the road.

Key findings

• The Dallas Cowboys had the highest road ticket prices in the NFL. The average resale ticket price when the Cowboys visited was $319 last season — more than $100 over the league average of $203.14.
• The New York Jets were the least expensive team to see on the road last year. The average resale ticket for a Jets road game cost just $118.84 — over $75 less than the league average of $203.14.
• The Las Vegas Raiders had the highest average ticket price for home games last season: $501.84 per ticket. The Houston Texans had the lowest at just $82.25.
• When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came to town, ticket prices rose 58% on average in each city they visited, the highest in the NFL.
• Despite being two of the AFC’s top teams in 2021-2022, home ticket prices for both the Buffalo Bills ($114.35) and Cincinnati Bengals ($142.77) were some of the least expensive in the entire NFL on the resale market.

Teams with the most and least expensive home tickets

Las Vegas Raiders fans pay a premium for home games. Last year, the average Raiders home ticket sold on the secondary market for $501.84. That’s nearly $300 more than the league average ($203).

Last year was the first that fans could experience games in Las Vegas’s new stadium without COVID restrictions, which is likely one reason Raiders tickets were some of the hottest on the Strip.

Similarly, both Los Angeles-based teams (Rams and Chargers) saw high ticket prices for games in their new stadium. Both teams landed in the top 10 for the highest home game cost.

The LA teams share SoFi Stadium, last year’s Super Bowl host. LA fans were willing to pay pretty high prices to see either of their home teams, with Chargers tickets costing just 55 cents more on average ($264.72) than tickets to see the eventual Super Bowl champion Rams ($264.17).

Beyond teams with new stadiums, teams with some of the most passionate fan bases made the top-10 list, including the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Philadelphia Eagles.

Two teams averaged less than $100 per ticket on the resale market last season: the rebuilding Houston Texans ($82.25) and the disappointing Jacksonville Jaguars ($95.38). The Jaguars endured a controversial 2021-2022 season under head coach Urban Meyer.

A number of the other teams in the bottom 10 can point to poor on-field performance or front-office dysfunction as the reason fans refused to shell out big bucks for them. But there were some exceptions.

The Buffalo Bills, one of the best teams in the AFC last year, averaged only $114.35 per home game ticket on the secondary market. This may be due to the quality of the opponents that visited Buffalo last year, as the nine teams that came to play in Highmark Stadium finished with a combined 64-88-1 record.

Additionally, six of those nine visiting teams — the Texans, Colts, Jets, Falcons, Dolphins, and Commanders — are also in the bottom 10 for home ticket prices. If those teams’ own fans don’t want to pay to see them play at home, why would Bills fans be excited to see them on the road?

The other outlier on this list is the Cincinnati Bengals, a team that won the AFC and played in the Super Bowl last year. While the Bengals hosted a number of quality opponents, a rough 2-4 stretch in the middle of the season may have tempered demand in Cincy.

Teams with the most and least expensive road tickets

The Dallas Cowboys call themselves “America’s Team,” and if ticket sales are any indication, then they may have a point. The average price for a Cowboys road game ticket was the highest of any team in the league at $319. That is nearly $40 higher than the team with the second-most expensive road tickets, Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.

Interestingly, the Buffalo Bills had one of the highest average ticket prices for their road games despite having one of the lowest average prices for home tickets.

While the passion of the Bills Mafia is likely a big part of that, so was the quality of their opponents. While the nine teams that played in Buffalo had a combined 64-88-1, the eight teams the Bills played on the road combined for a 72-64 record, including the Buccaneers, Chiefs, and Titans.

The New York Jets were the visiting team opposing fans least wanted to see, with an average road game ticket price of just $118.84. The Jets are also one of six teams with tickets that were among the least expensive for both home and road games.

Three of the teams on the lists of least expensive tickets — the Texans, Jaguars, and Colts — play in the AFC South, with a dismal combined record of 16-35. But the fourth team in that same division, the Tennessee Titans, also made the list of lowest average road game ticket prices despite a 12-5 record.

Good or bad, it appears that teams in the AFC South just didn’t excite opposing fans last year.

Teams with the biggest positive and negative impacts on road ticket prices

Of course, ticket prices alone do not tell the whole story. Apathetic or angry fans can drive down ticket prices for most opponents, regardless of how good they are. So which visiting teams will actually inflate prices in your home stadium?

When comparing ticket prices for each visiting team versus common opponents, it’s clear that fans of the biggest brands in football are willing to travel. Specifically, fans eager to get a (supposed) last glimpse at the then-retiring Tom Brady drove Buccaneer prices up an average of 58.1% over other visiting teams. That’s the highest increase in the NFL.

Other notoriously rabid fan bases — the Packers, Cowboys, Steelers, and Patriots — caused ticket prices to rise more than 40% above average when their teams visited NFL stadiums last year.

Conversely, two visiting teams caused ticket prices to drop more than a third last year. When the Carolina Panthers visited, home stadiums saw a 36% drop in secondary ticket prices, with the Jags not far behind at 34.5%.

The Jets (28.8%) and Texans (25.5%) brought down average prices by at least 25% in cities they visited last year.

More ways to save and support your favorite team

Going to game day doesn’t have to break the bank. Here are some other ways you can save while getting in on the action:

• Travel wisely. Use one of the best travel credit cards if you’re going to see your team on the road. These credit cards offer high rewards rates on travel purchases such as hotel stays and airfare.
• Budget effectively. Manage your money in a way that allows you to spend on the tickets and games you really want to see. These budgeting hacks can help you focus your finances and get you to your savings goals.
• Buy experiences, not gear. Did you know you can redeem rewards points for events with certain credit cards? This guide to gifting experiences with credit card points outlines how to give (and get) experiences.

Methodology

FinanceBuzz used data from seatdata.io to analyze over 1.6 million NFL tickets sold on StubHub for all regular season games played during the 2021-2022 season. Games played overseas were not included in this analysis. To find which road teams raised and dropped prices by the largest percentage, FinanceBuzz compared each team’s average road ticket cost to the average ticket cost for all other home games played by all teams that hosted them combined.