NFL: Angry Fans Snap Up Tickets for Nfl Game at Wembley

NFL: Angry Fans Snap Up Tickets for Nfl Game at Wembley

40,000 tickets were sold in 90 minutes for the historic game at Wembley in October, but fans were not happy as previously-posted prices for the event were increased.

NFL fans in the UK and Europe bought 40,000 tickets for the first-ever regular-season game to be played outside North America within 90 minutes of them going on sale today, but many were angry after ticket prices were seemingly increased without warning and some tickets appeared on the black market within an hour of being bought.

Those who had been successful in a ballot determining who could buy tickets for the game on October 28, which will be played between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants at Wembley Stadium, had originally been advised that price bands would be between £35 and £65+; but when logging on this morning to Ticketmaster, the ticket vendor for the event, they were informed that the sale would begin an hour later than scheduled “due to unforeseen technical circumstances”, and that prices had been bumped up to £45-£90. By comparison, nine-game season-tickets for the Dolphins, including two pre-season games, range from $261 to $684 (£132-£345).

NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood said that ticket prices had not actually been increased because the original prices had not been set in stone. “When we set up our register of interest we gave an indication of where ticket prices would be set,” he said. “This was done before we had been able to have full Wembley site surveys and so on. We put indicative prices out because we didn’t think it was fair to ask people to register their interest without giving a ballpark price. The bands we indicated were £35-£45, £45-£55, £55-£65, and £65plus – consistent with the actual prices of the tickets that went on sale today.”

Fans also had to pay a booking fee of £4.95 per ticket – Ticketmaster’s standard charge for ticket administration – with postage on top of that at £4.95 per dispatch. “These ‘service charges and booking fees’ have become seemingly ubiquitous and there doesn’t appear to be any regulation or policing of them,” said David Nickless, a fan who bought six tickets today.

“I also feel badly misled by the ticket prices. With these increasing by on average £10 more than advised and the unexpected service charges, I ended up paying almost £100 more for my tickets than I had originally expected. Because the NFL knew they could get away with charging more, they did. It doesn’t seem to bother them that it leaves loyal supporters out of pocket.”

Kirkwood, however, said that the NFL would not be making a profit out of the event. “The agreement for all games in the international series is that the local NFL office compensates for the revenue that would have been generated had the game been played in the usual home market. This is due to the nature of the collective bargaining agreement – whereby 40% of the gate goes into a shared pool for away teams – and the need to compensate vendors and licensees etc in Miami. We have to pay to bring the teams over and other operating costs of the game, so this game will not come close to making money for the NFL. It is an investment in the future growth of the sport.”

Demand vastly outstripped supply when the NFL asked fans to register interest in February, with the organisation receiving requests for more than 500,000 tickets within 72 hours. Wembley Stadium has a capacity of 90,000, with some seats reserved for media and corporate guests. The NFL therefore conducted a ballot, the winners of which were able to buy tickets in the first sales window this morning.

A second sale for fans in the UK and Europe will take place in June, but tickets were already being sold on the black market within an hour of being purchased – on eBay, two tickets can be bought for £399, more than three times face value. “This is very unfortunate,” said Kirkwood. “We have always intended tickets to be for genuine football fans and we will do our utmost to limit the secondary ticket market. For example, hard copy tickets will not be issued until late September.”

The move to Wembley has already proved unpopular with Dolphins supporters in the US because it counts as one of their eight “home” regular-season games. Ticket sales in Miami and New York are expected to begin next week.

Despite these controversies, the demand for tickets and speed at which they sold today emphasises how popular the NFL is in Europe. “What this clearly shows is that there is a huge potential in Britain and wider in Europe for American football to have a huge impact,” said the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. “We want to see the NFL coming back to London again and again.”

The NFL is trying to sell the game to the rest of the world after the success of its trip to Mexico City in 2005, when a NFL-record 103,000 people packed into the Azteca Stadium to watch the Arizona Cardinals play the San Francisco 49ers in the first game staged outside the US. But many Americans consider a trip to London a step too far, with some players unhappy with having to board a trans-Atlantic flight in the middle of the season.

Last week, the NFL revealed that they are tentatively looking into extending the 16-game season to include an annual game outside the US for every team, and possibly in the future even adding to the number of franchises in the league with teams in Canada, Europe and the Far East. This autumn’s game at Wembley may determine whether these are viable proposals.