The Las Vegas Raiders went 6-11 last season. They swapped out longtime starting quarterback Derek Carr with Jimmy Garoppolo, a player the 49ers benched in 2022 in favor of a guy who eventually slipped to third place on their depth chart (Trey Lance, subsequently traded to the Cowboys for a fourth round pick). Garoppolo is still working through a foot injury and he’ll be playing against the backdrop of a defense that ranked 28th out of 32 teams when it came to yards allowed last fall.
And despite all this, no team is hotter on StubHub’s secondary ticket market than the Raiders.
Data released Friday from the online marketplace further validated the NFL and team owner Mark Davis’s decision to move a team to Sin City. Despite a thoroughly underwhelming 2022, Las Vegas is selling tickets at a tremendous rate.
A Week 3 tilt against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which doubles as Vegas’s home opener, is currently the most in demand seat on StubHub. The Green Bay Packers’ Monday night visit in Week 5 ranks fourth when it comes to the most popular — and revenue-generating — games on the site.
The Raiders drew a perfect storm of opponents outside the AFC West this fall. They’ll bring in two of the game’s most popular old school teams when Pittsburgh and Green Bay come to town. They’ll also pull from major markets thanks to road trips from the New York Giants, New York Jets and New England Patriots (whose last trip to Vegas ended in the most hilarious way possible). Factor in division rivalry games against prospective playoff teams like the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs and it’s a very good year to be a Las Vegas season ticket holder.
StubHub’s report compiled a list of data points suggesting new trends for 2023. Some we expected; others are a bit more surprising. Let’s look at the non-Raiders developments from a shallow dive into this season’s ticket resale information.