There is no question that Falcons tickets are in high demand. The mystery is whether that’s mainly because the team’s fans are fired up for the start of the Kirk Cousins era or because they see a chance to cash in by reselling their tickets at a premium.
There will be clues Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Just look for the Terrible Towels, the iconic symbol of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They shouldn’t be hard to find. Steelers supporters are set to take over MBS for the season-opening game against the Falcons.
According to data compiled by ticket reseller Vivid Seats, approximately 53% of the fans at the game will be supporting the Steelers. Hordes of visiting fans could invade MBS for two other games on the schedule, Sept. 22 versus the Chiefs and Nov. 3 versus the Cowboys. All three teams have large following of fans who travel to watch them play from home cities or buy tickets to games when their teams are in the area.
The Falcons announced in July that they sold out season tickets for the first time in nearly 20 years with a renewal rate of 95%. That was an odd development for a franchise with a streak of six consecutive losing seasons, including a 7-10 mark in 2023. The Falcons attributed the surge in interest to the signing of Cousins and the hiring of coach Raheem Morris. But while Cousins is an upgrade, he’s not an elite player at his position, and Morris has a losing record as an NFL head coach.
Something else seemed to be at play. It might be personal finances. Falcons fans who purchased season tickets can recoup their costs and perhaps more by reselling seats for games in high demand.
Vivid Seats says the average selling price for Falcons tickets has increased by 120% from last season, more than every NFL team except the Texans (132%). A look at the cheapest seats available from no-fee reseller TicketIQ shows the impact of the Steelers, Chiefs and Cowboys games on the average.
The “get-in” price for the Steelers game was $191 as of Friday. It was $208 for the Sept. 22 Chiefs game and $241 for the Nov. 3 Cowboys game. The most expensive get-in price for the other six Falcons home games is $88 for the Sept. 29 contest against the rival Saints. The cheapest prices for the remaining games at TicketIQ range from $39 to $58.
The Chiefs are popular because of recent success that includes Super Bowl victories in three of the past five seasons. The popularity of the Cowboys has endured even though they last won a Super Bowl in 1995 and haven’t come within a game of going back since. The Cowboys and Steelers are among the five NFL teams with the largest traveling fan bases, according to Vivid Seats.
Large contingents of visiting fans at Falcons games are nothing new. It happened during a Steelers game in 2014. Fans of the 49ers and Cowboys have shown up strong in previous years, too. The impact of having so many interlopers in the building isn’t always limited to Falcons fans getting annoyed at being outnumbered or hearing the inevitable jabs about their lukewarm loyalty.
The home team is supposed to have an advantage because the crowd makes it harder for the visiting team to operate on offense. But that script has been flipped on the Falcons before. Chicago Bears fans were so loud during a 2014 game at the Georgia Dome that the Falcons were forced to use silent snap counts.
During that game Peter Konz was penalized for a false start, a rare call against a center, because he couldn’t hear quarterback Matt Ryan. Ryan was forced to call a timeout in the fourth quarter because his teammates couldn’t hear him once they lined up and the play clock was close to expiring. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter said it was the second time during his Falcons tenure that silent snap counts were necessary at home (he wasn’t sure of the previous occurrence but believed it was against the Seahawks the previous season).
The circumstances of that game contributed to Bears fans outnumbering Falcons supporters. Thousands of the home team’s fans left the Dome after the Bears took a two-touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Noise from visiting fans could be an issue for the Falcons from the start of Sunday’s game against the Steelers.
The Falcons once pumped artificial noise into the Georgia Dome, a violation of rules that led to punishment by the NFL. But is it possible to pump noise out of a stadium? If so, then the Falcons might need to try it when Cousins lines up Sunday at MBS.
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