After the Lions’ 21-20 win over the Chiefs, tickets for the Sept. 17 home opener against the Seahawks are on the rise on secondary markets.
This will do nothing to slow down the Lions’ hype train.
Thursday night’s NFL season opener between the Lions and defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs drew the largest TV audience since this year’s Super Bowl.
NBC said the game, won by the Lions, 21-20, averaged almost 27 million viewers, the most-watched program across any platform since the Chiefs’ 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII in February. Thursday’s game averaged 26.8 million viewers via NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital platforms. That was up 24% from last season’s season opener, when an average audience of 21.7 million viewers watched the game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams.
Thursday’s game peaked with an audience of 29.1 million viewers in the 9 p.m. hour, and 27.1 million still were watching late in the 10 p.m. hour when the Lions went ahead on David Montgomery’s touchdown run.
NBC said the largest market, no surprise, was in Kansas City, which garnered a 45.5 rating despite being one of the smallest TV markets in the country. Detroit was second with a 30.0, with Cincinnati third at 18.9. The calculations suggest more than 40 million people were watching the game in the Detroit market.
While the game was a boon for Lions fans, they were none too thrilled with the finish, when Mike Tirico, while raving about the team’s prospects, suggested the win carry an “asterisk” because the Chiefs were missing one of their best players on offense and defense. Tirico told The News on Thursday he might’ve used a poor choice of wording, but wished fans would’ve listened to the whole comment, when he called the Lions “for real.”
Detroit’s win, to kick off a Lions season perhaps more anticipated than any in more than three decades, has fans excited, as shown by ticket prices for the home opener against the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 17.
The Lions have a waiting list for season tickets for the first time since Ford Field opened in 2002, and prices on the secondary market are skyrocketing. As of Saturday morning, the cheapest get-in price on Stubhub for a single ticket was just under $200, while a pair in medium seats were running around $300, while prime seats were over $400. Those numbers are expected to rise as the game gets closer.
Stubhub has a note on the Sept. 17 game, saying, “This event is selling fast.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter/X: @tonypaul1984