After a long off-season, the return of football is here. The NFL never really left the headlines since the end of the Super Bowl, but now those headlines will be centered around real football games played on the field for the start of the regular season. The 2015 season kicks off Thursday night at Gillette Stadium when the New England Patriots host the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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It’s been the longest of the long offseason for the Patriots, who did not know who their starting quarterback was going to be for the season opener until late last week. When it was announced that Tom Brady would be able to play, ticket demand spiked on the secondary market. According to TiqIQ, the current average price for Patriots vs Steelers tickets is $532.71, up 24% from before Brady’s suspension was reversed on Thursday morning. With that increase, the Patriots game is the most expensive game of the first NFL weekend.
New England won’t be the only place that features high secondary market prices. On Sunday, one of the league’s best rivalries will be renewed when the Green Bay Packers head into Soldier Field to take on the Chicago Bears. There’s a wide gap in expectations between the two teams, but that hasn’t stopped Bears fans from driving high prices. The current average price for Bears vs Packers tickets is $436.07, 32.8% above the average regular season price for Bears tickets on TiqIQ in 2015.
Only one other opening week game has an average price above $300, surprisingly a matchup in Houston between the Chiefs and Texans. Overall the Texans only have an average price of $247.11 on the secondary market across the eight home games, but the opener against Kansas City is only Houston’s third most expensive game of the season at NRG Stadium behind matchups against the Patriots and Saints.
One of the biggest matchups of the week will come on Sunday Night Football between the Cowboys and the Giants. Despite this being a primetime game between two division rivals, the $284.34 average price is 8% below the season average for Cowboys tickets on the secondary market this year.
Below is a list of all 16 Week 1 games in the NFL by secondary market average price, according to TiqiQ:
Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots | Avg. Price: $532.71 | Get-in Price: $235 (Thursday)
Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears | Avg. Price: $436.07 | Get-in Price: $155
Kansas City Chiefs at Houston Texans | Avg. Price: $301.53 | Get-in Price: $101
Baltimore Ravens at Denver Broncos | Avg. Price: $290.22 | Get-in Price: $108
New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys | Avg. Price: $284.34 | Get-in Price: $92
Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers | Avg. Price: $221.14 | Get-in Price: $78 (Monday)
Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons | Avg. Price: $211.47 | Get-in Price: $66 (Monday)
Miami Dolphins at Washington Redskins | Avg. Price: $210.17 | Get-in Price: $51
Cincinnati Bengals at Oakland Raiders | Avg. Price: $196.82 | Get-in Price: $94
Indianapolis Colts at Buffalo Bills | Avg. Price: $173.46 | Get-in Price: $82
Detroit Lions at San Diego Chargers | Avg. Price: $161.80 | Get-in Price: $58
Tennessee Titans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Avg. Price: $160.02 | Get-in Price: $45
Cleveland Browns at New York Jets | Avg. Price: $152.50 | Get-in Price: $40
Seattle Seahawks at St. Louis Rams | Avg. Price: $139.70 | Get-in Price: $38
New Orleans Saints at Arizona Cardinals | Avg. Price: $125.91 | Get-in Price: $35
Carolina Panthers at Jacksonville Jaguars | Avg. Price: $100.96 | Get-in Price: $33
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