The Rams are playing in front of tens of thousands of empty seats at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the Chargers are playing in a small soccer stadium filled with the road team’s fans. But the NFL says that other than those two teams, attendance is solid.
League spokesman Joe Lockhart said today that while the Los Angeles market is obviously an area where they need to fill the fan base, the league’s other 30 teams are generally in fine shape on the ticket front.
“The secondary market remains strong for tickets,” Lockhart said. “As far as ticket sales in stadiums, we’ve had less capacity this year because of the teams in Los Angeles, but overall percentage we’re right where we have been in the last couple years, over 90 percent of seats filled. We’re right where we thought we’d be so there’s no real concern there despite some of the comments that are made out there.”
There’s no denying that the empty seats in Los Angeles -- and San Francisco -- have been ugly, and have not reflected well on the league. And there’s also no denying that a lot of NFL fans would rather enjoy the game from the comfort of their couches than spend a lot of money to attend. But attendance figures seem to suggest that outside California, ticket sales aren’t a major concern for the NFL.