NFL Stadium Attendance Collapses in 2018
The National Football League’s regular season is now over, and a final assessment of in-stadium attendance is not good. No, it’s not good at all.
With the league’s regular season games finally in the history books, the numbers seem to show that attendance fell to new lows this year.
According to numbers reported by Sports Business Daily’s Austin Karp, this year’s game attendance is the lowest since 2011. Ouch.
The most embarrassing attendance tumble this year was experienced by the Washington Redskins whose attendance is down 19 percent over last year’s numbers. Fans have been remarking all year how empty the stadium seems to be for the Skins.
Other attendance problems were seen by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, down nine percent, and the Cincinnati Bengals, down five percent.
Karp also noted that the Dallas Cowboys leads the league in fan support and has since owner Jerry Jones inaugurated AT&T Stadium in 2009.
Not every team lost support. Karp also noted that the L.A. Chargers grew by 29 percent and the Rams are up 14 percent.
Some NFL regular-season attendance notes:
— 67,100 for NFL is lowest average since 2011
— Good story in L.A.: Chargers up NFL-best 29%, while Rams up 14%
— Cowboys have led each season since Jerry World opened in 2009
— Redskins down league-worst 19%; Bucs -9%; Bengals -5%— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) January 2, 2019
Granted the improvement for the Chargers does not obviate the fact that the team has some of the smallest crowds in the league.
There was one small bright spot.
On the other hand, TV ratings finally stopped their two years of plummeting and even rose a tiny five percent overall. So, at least the league has that bright spot.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
