Ticket prices threaten NFL’s London appeal

One of Britain’s longest-serving NFL fans is calling time after 18 years: “It’s priced me out”

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MATT CULLEN’S streak of attending NFL games in London is nearing an end.

The Englishman’s run started at London’s first regular-season game in 2007, when he shrugged off steady rain to watch the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium.

But Cullen can’t bring himself to look past ticket prices and some “team fatigue.” He’s not the only one on the sidelines as London, a key international location for the NFL, gets set to host three games in October.

Most tickets historically get snapped up quickly — as they did for the Week 5 game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But the Jags-Houston Texans match-up at Wembley Stadium still had swaths of unsold seats over the weekend, and some tickets were still available for the Indianapolis Colts-Washington Commanders game on October 4 at Tottenham, two months after going on sale to the public.

“It will just be really, really interesting what the future of the London games looks like because they’re not selling to the potential any more than they used to,” Cullen said. “It’s a little bit around team fatigue … a lot of it’s around cost.”

The Jags-Texans (Week 6) is a Jacksonville-run game, meaning the Jags manage operations and ticketing themselves as they have done since 2022. The NFL runs the two Tottenham games.

The NFL is playing a record nine international games this season. The Australian city of Melbourne hosts for the first time when the Los Angeles Rams face the San Francisco 49ers in their season opener tomorrow morning.

The slate includes a game in Germany, Spain and France — giving fans more European choices and possibly impacting London demand.

Dori Dunai, a London-based Green Bay Packers fan, is on an NFL Britain mailing list and said she has been receiving weekly emails about available Colts-Commanders tickets.

“All other years tickets were gone on the day of sale and heard nothing more of tickets,” Dunai said.

Ticket-price anger gained steam last year.

After scrapping its “season tickets�� programme, which allowed fans to buy tickets for each year’s NFL-run London games at once, the NFL added two new ticket categories and sharply increased some prices. One former season ticket-holder, journalist Thomas Willoughby, described a price increase of nearly 48 per cent from 2024 to ’25.

The league priced this year’s Tottenham games individually. The Philadelphia-Jacksonville game is the more expensive of the two, and its brisk sales seemingly point to the popularity of the Eagles.

Children’s discounts aside, the cheapest ticket for both Tottenham games is £79. From there, the Eagles-Jags game is more expensive, topping out at £280 while the highest price for Colts-Commanders is £245 in standard seating. Those prices include fees.

Compared with the 2025 games at Tottenham, the categories for the Colts-Commanders game reflect slightly lower prices, though seats can also be moved into higher-priced categories.

Wembley adult prices for Jags-Texans start at £70 and rise to £297 — all before fees.

Cullen’s seat at Wembley for a 2016 game — when he was a season-ticket holder — cost £66. This year’s price chart shows the same seat at £146 pounds for Jags-Texans on October 18, also excluding fees.

He’s managed to attend at least one London game — none were played in 2020 — each season including last year. But barring a below-face-value offer, Cullen’s streak will end: “It’s priced me out.”

Is the London line-up getting dull for neutral fans with so many Jaguars games?

“Give us six new teams each year from next season, that’s the biggest change I want,” Dunai said in an interview.

Including their two October games, the Jags will have played in London nine times since 2021. They played an annual game at Wembley from 2013-19 and have built a fan base.

But despite their longevity, British viewing and popularity indicators are not in their favour.

The Jags ranked No. 28 for most-watched teams on NFL Game Pass in Britain and Ireland in 2025. Their October 18 opponent, Houston, was two spots lower.

Jacksonville was also among the lesser-searched NFL teams by British fans in 2025, according to analytics company Hyperset Group, based on Google search data.

It’s not just the Jaguars, said Cullen, a New York Jets fan. His team played in London in 2024 and 2025 and “no-one wants to see the Jets.”

Ultimately, the stadiums fill up. Tottenham’s capacity for Premier League games is 62,850 but lower for NFL games, which regularly surpass 61,000 fans.

Attendance at three of the past four Jaguars games at Wembley exceeded 86,000.

Both the Jaguars and the NFL declined interview requests. In a statement, the NFL said Britain “remains one of the league’s most important international markets.

“Interest in NFL games continues to be strong. Each year, hundreds of thousands of fans register for ticket information and opportunities to attend our games, and London remains one of the premier destinations for NFL fans outside the United States,” it said.

The league added it is “incredibly grateful for the passion and loyalty” of British fans.

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