NFL Cuts London Ticket Prices as Commanders-Colts Game Fails to Sell Out

The NFL's London series kicked off this weekend with a problem the league hasn't faced much in its 19 years of playing games there: empty seats.

Sunday's matchup between the Washington Commanders and Indianapolis Colts at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium drew a crowd of 60,907, according to BBC Sport, after the league cut prices twice to fill the building. Indianapolis won 30-13. Neither team made last season's playoffs.

Tickets originally went on sale in July at £79 to £245 ($105 to $325), according to BBC Sport's Ben Collins, reporting from the stadium. The NFL cut prices again in late August and once more last week, meaning fans who paid £185 wound up sitting next to people who paid £79 for the same game just days later, according to the Associated Press's Ken Maguire, as reported by NBC Sports. Some tickets were also offered free or discounted through the Blue Light Card and Tickets For Good platforms.

Fans who paid full price are angry

Andy Burrows, the NFL's 2025 international fan of the year and a London native, told Maguire the league's priority is optics, not loyalty. "They don't care about the fans," Burrows said. "As long as that place sells out and it looks good on TV, the NFL won't care about us. And I'm not alone. I speak to fans every day."

Matt Cullen, a Cambridge fan who has attended most of London's NFL games and previously held a season-ticket package, gave BBC Sport two reasons for the slow sales: rising prices and the NFL's decision to scrap London season-ticket packages after the 2024 season. "I find the prices now mind-boggling," Cullen said. "It's so far above the rate of inflation that it just feels like a money-grab. It's priced out a lot of long-term fans."

The numbers back up part of that complaint. In 2019, London tickets ranged from £55 to £125. UK inflation has risen roughly 32.4% since then, according to Ticket-Compare, but the cheapest NFL London ticket price has climbed 43.9% and the most expensive has jumped 96.5%.

Still, Cullen acknowledged the other side of the equation. "But I do understand the NFL wants to bring new fans in," he said. Bringing in new buyers through discount platforms is a defensible growth strategy, not proof of bad faith, and it's the same tactic plenty of sports leagues and concert promoters use to fill seats for games that aren't marquee attractions.

Not every London game is struggling

Next Sunday's game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham, the most expensive ticket of the three London games this year, sold out within hours, per BBC Sport. Philadelphia has reached two of the last four Super Bowls, and quality of opponent appears to matter more to UK buyers than the league may want to admit.

The Jaguars-Texans game at Wembley Stadium on Oct. 18, by contrast, still has large unsold sections, according to BBC Sport. That's the same complaint UK fans raised about recent matchups generally: they want marquee teams, not just the stamp of an international game.

The discontent comes as the NFL spreads its international slate thinner. The league is playing a record nine regular-season games abroad this season. Australia hosted a divisional-round-caliber matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams last month, and Brazil hosted a Baltimore Ravens-Dallas Cowboys game that Cullen called "amazing," adding, "we haven't had many of those unfortunately" in London.

The NFL says its UK fanbase has grown to 18.6 million people, with 4.5 million considered "avid" fans, though the league did not respond to the ticket-pricing criticism in any of the reporting reviewed here. Whether that fanbase number translates into sellouts for lower-profile matchups like Commanders-Colts, or whether the league needs to rethink which teams it sends to London as competition from Brazil, Australia and other countries intensifies, remains an open question the NFL will have to answer before next year's schedule is set.