Families Blitzed by Cost of Attending NFL Games

We’re getting closer and closer to the time of year football fans love. Teams are reporting to training camp, the preseason is about to begin and fantasy drafts are underway. There are just six Sundays remaining this year that don’t have regular-season football. And with new ownership, even Commanders fans have something to look forward to. 

The league’s popularity has reached new heights in recent years, and now with multiple games in Germany and London, the NFL has officially become a global spectacle. But at what cost? Ahead of the new season, we’ve examined at how much it costs for a family of four to attend just one game at each stadium. We calculated the total price of four tickets for each NFL team, four hot dogs, two beers, two soft drinks, two souvenir hats and parking. 

Nothing beats the experience of seeing your team live, but will you have to take out a mortgage to do it?

Las Vegas Raiding Your Account

If a trip to Sin City wasn’t expensive enough, you won’t find another stadium with higher ticket costs. The Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium will be home to Super Bowl LVIII in February, and you’re going to be paying Super Bowl prices to watch a team that finished last season with a losing record. 

Tickets to see Jimmy Garoppolo, Davante Adams and (possibly) Josh Jacobs will set you back $153.47 each. Once inside Allegiant, prices aren’t too bad in comparison to other stadiums in the league. A hot dog will cost just $3. Only in Atlanta will you get a cheaper dog ($2). A small soda is also just $3 and, like their hot dogs, they’re the second-cheapest in the NFL after the Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium ($2). 

Beer in Vegas is in the middle tier for pricing. At $10 for a small, it’s cheaper than at 12 other NFL stadiums. By the time you’ve forked out $21.99 each for two caps and $36.50 on parking, your family day out is going to cost you $732.36. You’re going to have to hit the roulette wheel and hope your numbers come up to cover it. Last year, visiting fans would have had a 50-50 chance of seeing their team win, as Vegas went 4-4 at home. 

There’s one other team that’s going to cost your family north of $700 for a game, and that team plays in ultra-expensive Silicon Valley. The San Francisco 49ers provided a better product for fans than their former Bay Area rivals in 2022. Kyle Shanahan’s team swept the NFC West and went 13-4, including a 10-game winning streak, en route to the NFC Championship game. 

Tickets at Levi’s Stadium cost $144.81, and at $11.50 their beer is among the most expensive in the league. Their hot dogs are $5.50 each and a soda will set you back $4. Caps are $24.99, and trying to park among the Google crowd will cost $42.40. Levi’s is so far from anywhere else, there’s no other option. The Niners’ parking charges are in the top third of the NFL. Overall, a day out for a 49ers family will cost $724.62. 

Mac Jones might not get Patriots fans on the edge of their seats like Tom Brady did, but they’ve got to fork out the third-highest price for a family day out. Tickets in Foxboro cost $131.45, on average. Only five other NFL venues have cheaper hot dogs than New England’s $4.50. Maybe it’s that smooth New England pale ale, but beers ring in at $10.50 for a small. Let’s hope it’s a strong one. Their soft drink prices are $5, and caps cost $25.99. 

It’s the parking that’s going to sting you most. Foxboro has the fourth-highest charge to park your vehicle out of all 32 NFL venues. It costs $58 to leave your car, which is more than double the charge at 12 other stadiums; that’s almost more than a third of the league. 

The most expensive venue for beer is at the Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay. The $12 they charge is more than double the price you’d pay for a small beer at the Jets, Giants, Falcons, Lions, Bengals, or Dolphins home fields. The cheapest beer is $5, which you pay at each of those venues, except Cincinnati ($5.53). 

Some of the best football in the league is being played in southwest Ohio, and it’s the Bengals that provide the NFL’s cheapest family football experience. At $87.36 a ticket, Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Joe Mixon are delivering an exciting brand of offense for almost half the price of a game ticket at a Raiders home game. 

Hot dogs at Paycor Stadium are $5.66, although soft drinks are the second-most expensive in the NFL at $6.67. Their caps are at the top end of the price spectrum at $27.99, but parking is just $17.50. The overall cost to take the family to watch last season’s third-seed in the AFC is $469.96, that’s a massive $262.40 cheaper than in Vegas. 

The cheapest ticket in the league is in Jacksonville, at $84.76. Only five teams provide a cheaper overall family day out than the New York Jets ($514.42), which is almost $100 cheaper than the Giants. Aaron Rodgers or Daniel Jones, who would you rather watch?

The cheapest concessions are in Atlanta, where the Falcons charge $2 for a hot dog, $2 for a soda, and $5 for a beer. 

Whichever way you look at it, the cost of football isn’t cheap. If you’re planning your trip, you might need to smash that piggy bank. 

Methodology

To learn which NFL stadiums are most and least affordable for families, we organized data from Team Marketing Report’s Fan Cost Index. We added up the cost of four non-premium tickets, two small beers, two small soft drinks, two team hats, and one parking space. 

Fair Use

You can use our data and graphics for any non-commercial purpose you might need. Please just link back to this page as a source to credit the creators.