Economics of NFL Attendance

Abstract

The NFL started as an in-person spectator sport. Football teams played in baseball stadiums and around the MLB schedule. That is no longer the case. In 2010 the average attendance at an NFL game has grown to 516,238 spectators at home games. At least 150 million people watched part of an NFL game during the first 4 weeks of the 2010 season. On average 18.9 million people watched an NFL game on TV in 2010. The NFL was the most profitable US professional sports league, with a staggering $7.8 billion in revenues in 2009. While game day ticket sales are still an important part of NFL revenues they are second to the revenues from the NFL television broadcasting contracts. According to Forbes, in 2008 NFL revenues added up to $7.6 billion. $3.7 billion came from television contracts including DirecTV. Thus, the average team made $237 million in total revenue. A typical team made $59 million from ticketing and concessions. Therefore ticketing and concessions were about 25% of revenues, whereas television revenues comprised about 50% of the total revenues. Does attendance at games still matter? Yes it most definitely does. The NFL will not allow games that are not sold out to be televised locally. No one wants to watch a game at a partially filled stadium even if they are at home. It is for this reason that a chapter on NFL attendance deserves our attention.