The National Football League has proven to be a smash hit success in the UK since it first gained attention in the country in the 1980s. Many UK fans now have their own NFL favourites from the 32 teams and would love to go and see them play.
However, the logistics of getting a ticket to a game, as well as the travel involved, can make this dream of attending an NFL a pipedream.
For many UK fans, their only option has been to cross their fingers and hope their NFL Favourites are selected to play in the International Series games held in London each year.
But of course, that is limited to just a handful of teams each season. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee your NFL Favourites will be the one making the trip across the Atlantic Ocean to play in one of those games.
Unless you are a Jacksonville Jaguars fan of course!
So, in this informative article, we’ll give you some tips on how best to get tickets for all of the top teams in the NFL including your NFL Favourites.
We’ll explain where to get them, the prices you can expect to pay, as well as the other things you may need to factor in to see your favourites playing in their home stadium (or as a visiting team in another stadium).
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Before you even begin to consider going to a game to watch your NFL Favourites, there are certain things you need to consider and sort before looking at tickets.
Depending on your situation this could include: –
If you are working, then you are going to need time off work to fully enjoy the experience. It is a huge ask (not to mention exhausting) to work Monday to Friday. Then fly to the United States, watch your NFL Favourites in a game on the Sunday and fly back that evening for work Monday morning.
So, you are likely going to need at least a couple of days off work for the trip. More if you intend to spend longer than a couple of days in the United States to take in a bit more of the culture.
Obviously, the longer you have available for your trip, the more of the United States is available to you.
However, for shorter trips, you are probably best looking for flights from a UK airport to a destination on the east coast (New York, Boston, Miami etc).
Flight times to these eastern cities can be several hours less than those on the west coast, like Los Angeles, Las Vegas or Seattle.
Remember, if your NFL Favourites play in a city that isn’t an obvious destination for UK-based flights, you may need to catch a connecting flight in the United States, which can add considerably to the travel time for your trip.
This usually involves a flight into a main US airport such as Chicago O’Hare or JFK in New York and then catching a domestic US flight to a location closest to the venue for your game.
It used to be the case that heading to the United States was relatively cheap for UK citizens. That is no longer the case now. The cost of everything, as the pound has weakened, has increased markedly, so that means you will need more money for spending, accommodation, and travel within the United States (such as to and from your hotel).
If you are not going to be travelling much, Uber cabs are a good way to get around more conveniently than local transport. They are more expensive, but they offer a door-to-door service. And they are considerably cheaper an option than car hire.
Remember too, you’ll want to go to the Tailgating experience before the game to share the experience with other fans of your NFL Favourites, purchase food and merchandise at the game and similar, so ensuring you have enough to spend is crucial.
Finding accommodation for your trip is important. Hotels closest to your NFL Favourites stadia are more convenient, but tend also to be more expensive, especially on those game days. Those further away can be much cheaper, but you do incur more travel costs and they are more inconvenient for the game.
By this point, you should have hopefully a timeframe for your trip, where you will fly from and to, an idea of what it will cost (and the ability to pay for it) and an idea of where you will stay and how you will get around.
Now it is time to try and find a ticket for the game to watch your NFL Favourites.
Now is not the time to skimp on tickets. If you are making the effort and expense to travel to the US to watch your NFL Favourites play, you don’t want to turn up to the game with a fake ticket, or find that your ticket is invalid or similar.
Tickets for NFL games are NOT cheap. You should be expecting to pay from around $80 up to $150 for a standard seat at a game. That price is Per person.
For some games and teams, especially those that sell out their home fixtures, ticket prices can be much higher. Plus some teams are much harder to find available tickets for than others.
How much they cost depends on who your NFL Favourites are, and which team they are playing. Regardless, a ticket is expensive.
As such, I would only ever buy a ticket for the game at or around the face value price from a reputable and respected source.
In the UK, that for me would be either StubHub or Ticketmaster, with the former being my first choice. That simply because they tend to have tickets on sale more quickly than Ticketmaster.
However, you also need something to be confirmed before you buy a ticket. If you check the screenshot below, you’ll notice in the left column the phrase “Date to be Announced”
That is because the full NFL Schedule for the season had not been revealed at the time of writing.
This means, you cannot guarantee that your NFL Favourites will be playing at their home stadium (assuming that is where you want to go to watch them) on any date until the schedule is released.
The NFL Schedule Release date is key when booking tickets to watch any NFL game as it will decide the time and place that you are going to visit to catch the game.
Your NFL Favourites will play either 8 or 9 home games in a season, and either 8 or 9 on the road. These games will be played between September and early January and the likelihood is that the games will take place on either (times shown below are estimated kick off time only): –
So, as you can see, it makes sense for your trip, if possible, to start by travelling to the U.S. on the Wednesday and then coming home on the following Tuesday as this will give you the greatest flexibility to catch the game you want.
There is a scheduled Black Friday game around Thanksgiving, but given how expensive and busy traveling in the United States is around this period, it is a time of the year best avoided by UK NFL fans. Unless you decide to use an All-Inclusive NFL Game Package (which we will outline below).
The NFL does not have a strict Schedule Release date each year. However, since 2020, the schedule has been released between the 7th and 12th May, each time on a Thursday, which suggests a Thursday around the second week in May is the time to check.
It does sound crazy, but once the schedule is released you will then need to act quickly. Once fans know that the game will take place at a stated time and place, the tickets that are available for games will be snapped up very quickly.
So too will a number of travel options, so the minute you get confirmation of the schedule, then is when you should try and purchase your game ticket and organise your travel and accommodation.
Make no mistake, sorting your own trip to see your NFL Favourites is not a five-minute job. You’ll need to be organised, quick, flexible and have the cash available for the options you want.
Here’s a checklist of what you should be looking to do in order to plan and enjoy your trip to the full.
This is a lot of work, but it can result in the trip of a lifetime to watch your NFL Favourites. However, there is an easier option available to you that is less pressured.
There are companies that can arrange the entire trip for you including tickets to the game, transport, hotels and other activities (such as tailgating, college games, airport transfers etc). TouchdownTrips.com is one such site that is worth looking at if this appeals to you.
You will pay a slight premium for this service, so if you are on a budget, you may find it cheaper to source your own flights, accommodation, tickets etc.
However, if you prefer to travel with a company that is ABTA bonded and ATOL protected and which will cover everything you need on a trip, then these company’s offer a very appealing service.
A list of sites offering this kind of NFL service is shown below. We are not endorsing any one of these sites over the other. Their links are provided for information purposes only.
These companies can either help you tailor your own bespoke trip to suit your own requirements, or they can offer a standalone package which includes a number of items for certain games.
As a rough guide, you can pay anywhere from around £1,000 to over £5,000 per person for some of the top end packages, depending on the team, time of year and other trip options you select.
Most package options though tend to be around the £1,500 to £2,000 mark for regular season games.
You can expect to pay a lot more for packages for Playoff Games or the Super Bowl however.
We hope this guide has helped UK fans understand what they can do to visit the US to see their NFL Favourites in action!
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