NFL London Games

KraniX · 7 Jun 2019 at 12:16

Did any of you guys manage to get tickets for the games?

What a horrific process, the website was dire and kept crashing or putting me back in the queue, once I managed to get some seats I was then unable to checkout... you have a damn countdown saying the tickets will be released in x minutes and was furiously clicking everything but couldn't do squat.

People were going nuts on the NFL UK Twitter feed.

In the end I bagged a Wembley season ticket, at least I think I did as I got the confirmation email but on their awful website I can't see the details of my purchase history and they have a section to manage tickets but nothing shows up. Bit worried due to all the issue I won't actually have seats but emailed CS to confirm.

How did you all get on?

Karl · 25 Jun 2019 at 11:00

Yep, grabbed three tickets for the Bengals v Rams game, and nearly soiled myself when I put my card details in, hit continue, and got a cloudfront equivalent error page. ****** scary. Luckily the transaction went through, and the availability issue was with serving up the actual confirmation page.

Going to have to go through it all again on Thursday for Bears tickets. Sod's law that I wanted two games at separate stadiums.

Season tickets and hospitality packages have wiped out good seats though. There was single seat availability for sideline this morning (£167 a seat), but I ended up getting 3 end zone seats together, as that was the best I could manage. I expect Thursday to be the same.

t-rex · 27 Jun 2019 at 13:55

I was on the phone to a friend who'd secured us some decent seats (I was still in the queue). Upon entering his details and clicking to proceed, he was presented with a screen that told him his timed had run out (which it hadn't). Then after that, none left. Absolutely furious.

Karl · 27 Jun 2019 at 15:33

Managed to get a pair again today for the Bears game, but again, seats are severely limited. If you wanted to sit in either East or West stands in a decent place, you need to be paying for season tickets, or hospitality tickets.

I just have to keep reminding myself that this game is basically servicing all of Europe. it's not like trying to get tickets for a band in the UK that're doing a world tour, there are 4 games happening in Europe, and they all happen to be on my doorstep. Germans, French, Scandinavians, Portugese, all of Europe's NFL fans trying to get in to 4 dates.

Timber · 27 Jun 2019 at 17:14

Yea, I missed out unfortunately. Was on the website at 10am and basically had the spinning wheel of death. I've seen the Bears before at Soldier Field and in the Wembley game in 2011 but I think may in part spurn me on to consider looking at another long weekend to Chicago to watch the Bears at Soldier Field.

In 2011 there was none of this season tickets, although that year the late player agreement meant the tickets were on sale very late. But it seems like @Karl mentioned a lot of people have purchased the season tickets and then are selling the Carolina/Tampa Bay tickets on. Of course limiting tickets to cardholders/ID-only would reduce that nonsense.

Timber · 27 Jun 2019 at 20:25

PR statement with regards to London Games: https://twitter.com/NFLUK/status/1144238896244494337

I don't know if this is particularly bad year or not (some of the responses suggest the last few years have had similar problems). Although I imagine the 20,000 plus reduction in seating probably also doesn't help.

t-rex · 27 Jun 2019 at 20:55

I saw the Bears in 2011 too. I was really looking forward to it this year. Finally after the years of pain, a team to be excited about! Really wanted to see Cohen, Trubisky, Nagy, and also Gruden! Oh well. I'll keep my eye out for ticket resale, but I'm not paying anything other than face value.

I'm going to be in L.A. for the Steelers vs Rams game, so at least I can watch that...

styuR · 16 Jul 2019 at 14:15

Every year the ticketing is an absolute joke, think I might be best served just heading over to the US for a game instead.

Karl · 22 Jul 2019 at 14:06

styuR said:
Every year the ticketing is an absolute joke, think I might be best served just heading over to the US for a game instead.

I use the Bengals' iPhone app, and they're offering season tickets for $200 a piece. Then it gets over to Europe, and you're buying decent seats for 50% - 75% of the cost of what local fans pay for a year's home games.

styuR · 23 Jul 2019 at 14:54

Karl said:
I use the Bengals' iPhone app, and they're offering season tickets for $200 a piece. Then it gets over to Europe, and you're buying decent seats for 50% - 75% of the cost of what local fans pay for a year's home games.

To be fair, there's usually huge waiting lists for the season tickets, and for most they have to buy a PSL as well, just for the right to buy season tickets.

Karl · 29 Jul 2019 at 10:10

styuR said:
To be fair, there's usually huge waiting lists for the season tickets, and for most they have to buy a PSL as well, just for the right to buy season tickets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_season_ticket_waiting_lists - check that out for the Bengals. Looks like having a poor season and a poor draft has its benefits

Dunkeekong · 18 Aug 2019 at 08:21

Karl said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_season_ticket_waiting_lists - check that out for the Bengals. Looks like having a poor season and a poor draft has its benefits

But then you would have to live in Ohio....

Karl · 21 Aug 2019 at 13:52

Dunkeekong said:
But then you would have to live in Ohio....

Of course you would. I'm not denying that it's capitalism in action, but when tourism companies are charging 5x the rates for holidays abroad during kids' holidays, nobody answers with "yeah, just don't have kids". You note the disparity, and that's what I've done in this case too. £114 for a seat to one game in London, or $200 for a seat to 8 home games in Ohio.

I'd be interested to see how much tickets to a Saints game are, for example, as you'll probably using a season ticket holder's seat off stub hub.