Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Some fanbases travel a whole lot better than others…
The Seahawks are known for having one of the loudest and most dedicated home crowds in all of professional sports. However, there’s more to it than that – as we discovered in Week 17 to our chagrin some fanbases travel a whole lot better than others. Let’s see how all 32 teams stack up in average attendance for both home and road games last season.
All attendance numbers are via ESPN.
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The Broncos averaged 75,980 fans per game in 2022, the fifth-best attendance average in the NFL.
The numbers are in for attendance across the NFL in 2022, and it they reflect well on Denver Broncos fans.
Despite a dismal year that featured a 5-12 record, a head coach firing 15 games into the season and finishing near the bottom of the NFL in nearly every offensive statistic, Denver faithful continued to show up (for the most part).
The Broncos finished with the fifth-highest attendance in the NFL in 2022, with an average of 75,980. The highest fan attendance belonged to the Dallas Cowboys, who averaged 93,465 fans per game.
The numbers for Denver fans went down from 2021, when an average of 76,236 fans came to Empower Field at Mile High, and finishing third in the NFL for attendance. In 2022, games for the Broncos were increasingly frustrating for fans. This was exemplified by the Thursday Night Football meltdown against the Indianapolis Colts. In the 12-9 overtime loss, cameras showed fans streaming out of the stadium before overtime even began. In the Peyton Manning era, fans leaving the stadium would be unthinkable.
Before the 2023 season, Denver ownership announced over $100 million in stadium upgrades, including, but not limited to, enlarging the south scoreboard, improvements to the suite level of the stadium and installing two new elevators.
Despite the upgrades, in order for attendance to increase, the product on the field must be the main draw. With the hiring of head coach Sean Payton, the Broncos want to show that they are serious about finding a sense of identity and discipline. With identity and discipline, teams win games. Winning draws fans. That’s the simple math.
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If there was one thing that fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars made well known in 2019, it was their displeasure towards Shad Khan’s 38-90 record as owner after he made comments about the fanbase’s appetite for football. With all of the final results …
If there was one thing that fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars made well known in 2019, it was their displeasure towards Shad Khan’s 38-90 record as owner after he made comments about the fanbase’s appetite for football. With all of the final results in as far as ticket sales go, it appears they’ve also expressed their displeasure by impacting attendance numbers as a recent study from Sports Business Daily shows that the Jags had the league’s steepest decline in their attendance average with an 8.7% drop.
Behind the Jags were the Oakland Raiders with a 7.6% drop and the Cincinnati Bengals with a 7% drop. However, when looking at the Jags’ and Bengals’ struggles on the field and the fiasco with Oakland having to turn back to the city to play another year at RingCentral Coliseum, the decline in attendance for each team makes sense. That’s not to say any of the three teams were alone either, as the league in general saw its lowest attendance figures in 15 years, averaging just 66,648 attendees per home game.
Meanwhile, the Jags averaged just under 60,000 attendees in their home games in 2019, per ESPN. That’s a number that ranked them at the No. 27 spot, with the Raiders, Tampa Bay Bucs, Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers behind them, respectively.
In addition to the Jags’ struggles on the field, there were many fans who complained about the stadium experience as there were long wait times to get into TIAA Bank Field. Some also have taken to social media to express their displeasure about the waiting process for concessions, too, while others have expressed the need for a stadium cover due to the Jags’ playing games in the sweltering Florida heat. All are issues Khan will need to better address sooner rather than later as the league seemingly puts a lot into stadium experience.
Khan’s decision to keep general manager Dave Caldwell and Doug Marrone also won’t help the Jags’ case with attendance. Simply put, there were more fans who didn’t like Khan’s decisions to keep both than those who did after how the last two seasons have gone. However, in the end, Khan’s patience with the front office could pay off if the two get back to the level of play they were at in 2017. If there isn’t improvement though, attendance could further be impacted and one can’t blame the fans after the support they’ve given Khan and the Jags since he’s become owner.
