A look at the measures NFC teams have taken to sell tickets

 

Much like the teams in the AFC, there were five teams in the NFC that had to do little or nothing to keep their ticket sales strong. The only real difference is the NFC features a team, the Dallas Cowboys, opening a new stadium, and a team that was already doing many of the new initiatives to other team in the Seattle Seahawks.

The Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, and Green Bay Packers did little more than freeze their ticket prices. Since these teams are so popular, and in most cases reasonably successful they had little trouble selling their allotment of 2009 tickets.

The news is not as good for the rest of the NFC. This Conference features two teams that had 2008 blackouts; Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams, and has already had a 2009 game blacked out as the Lions failed to sell out their match up with the Redskins in week three of the new season.

With that in mind here are some of the plans by NFC teams to increase ticket sales:

• Arizona Cardinals- Modest ticket increase in the Lower bowl, going to the Super Bowl does have its privileges, but the Cardinals have a nasty habit of forcing fans to buy tickets to multiple games. This year for the Packers and Vikings games fans were forced to purchase tickets to two other contests, including at least one pre-season game
• Atlanta Falcons- Added a six month payment plan, added four person season ticket holder customer service team, and froze or reduced most ticket prices
• Carolina Panthers- Froze ticket prices, and sold two game packages for the first time
• Chicago Bears- Froze ticket prices, started accepting credit cards, and gave five year season ticket holder pre-game on the field passes
• Detroit Lions- added all you can eat option, offered season ticket holders discounts of Ford cars, gave season ticket holders 20% coupons for new Lions merchandise, renamed the last 10 rows in the upper deck above both end zones the Red Zone and offered single game tickets for 30 dollars
• Minnesota Vikings- Froze ticket prices, offered payment plans that let customers make monthly or weekly payments, and invited season ticket holders to a State of the Vikings town hall event
• New Orleans Saints- froze ticket prices, and started selling this season way back in 2008
• New York Giants- froze ticket prices, and added season ticket holder customer service staff
• San Francisco 49ers- Froze ticket prices, upgraded restaurants, and added a hall of fame
• St. Louis Rams- Froze ticket prices, offered payment plans, and sold three game packages
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers- froze ticket prices, reduced contract for season tickets from 10 years to one, partial season packages, and offered half price tickets for kids under 16 in certain sections