May 6, 2024
·Chris Leyden
The 2024 NFL schedule release is right around the corner, as the league has historically released the schedule the second week of May. Assuming they stick to that timeline, we are only days away from hearing when Kirk Cousins will make his Atlanta Falcons regular season debut, when the New England Patriots will take on their AFC East rivals without Bill Belichick for the first time in more than 20 years, and when first overall pick Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears will head to Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers.
While we will have a much better sense of demand for individual games and teams once tickets go on sale immediately upon the schedule being released, in the meantime we thought we would use our historical dataset to analyze which teams and matchups we expect to see the most in demand come the night of schedule release. We will be sure to update this post with the actual results once the schedule is out.
Predicted Most In Demand Teams at NFL Schedule Release
Las Vegas Raiders - Since moving to Las Vegas the Raiders have become one of the hottest tickets in the NFL every season, likely driven by it being the dream road trip for many away fans, especially those looking to escape the cold. In each of the last three years they have been one of the top two selling NFL teams on SeatGeek in May. While this year’s slate of home opponents doesn’t include teams like the Packers or Cowboys, whose fans always travel, home games against the Steelers and Browns amongst others should certainly drive demand.
San Francisco 49ers - Last May the 49ers ended up the 3rd most in demand team on SeatGeek, and coming off a Super Bowl appearance this year should be no different. Especially with a rematch with the Chiefs on the schedule, as well as visits from the Cowboys, Jets and Patriots.
Pittsburgh Steelers - The Steelers typically come in around 10th for demand around schedule release, but this year’s home matchup list might be the strongest in the league. Visits from Cowboys, Chiefs, Jets and Giants give the Raiders four marquee home game matchups that will certainly bring excitement and high demand.
Seattle Seahawks - The team on this list that may surprise people the most, the Seahawks are consistently one of the most in demand tickets around schedule release. Their home game against the Packers is sure to be one of the hotter tickets of the season.
Kansas City Chiefs - Hard to write this list and not include the defending champions, especially given the increase in fandom from Swifties. The Chiefs were the 4th most in demand team during last year’s schedule release, and there is no reason to see why that will be different this year. The home schedule includes matchups against some of the best in the AFC when the Ravens, Bengals and Texans all come to town this fall.
Predicted Most in Demand Matchups at NFL Schedule Release
Steelers at Raiders - Second best selling matchup last May when the 2023 schedule came out, there are still plenty of Steelers fans who want to make the trip to Vegas this fall.
Cowboys at 49ers - Similar to the above, was the 4th best selling matchup at schedule release last year, and despite being a repeat will once again be one of the hottest tickets of the season.
Cowboys at Steelers - A marquee NFL matchup of two of the NFL’s best traveling fan bases, the Cowboys only come to Pittsburgh once every eight years so demand is certain to be high.
Browns at Raiders - Based on the average price paid per ticket after the schedule was released last season, seven of the Raiders home games were in the Top 11 of highest priced games overall. No reason to think that trend won’t be different this year for this visit from an on the rise Browns team.
Packers at Seahawks - Year in and year out the Packers are one of the best traveling fan bases in football. It’s tough to pick out which road trip for the Chesseheads will be the most in demand this season, but our prediction is it will be the trip to Seattle.