How Much Longer Will Fans Pay Full Price For NFL Pre-Season Football?

Every August, NFL fans flock to stadiums and living rooms with the hope that football is finally back. But there’s a lingering frustration that refuses to go away: preseason tickets still cost full price, despite the games being glorified scrimmages with limited starters, watered-down playbooks, and rosters filled with players who may never make the team.

For decades, the NFL has justified preseason pricing by packaging tickets with regular season games. Season ticket holders have little choice — they’re forced to pay full freight for exhibition matchups if they want access to the real action come September. Individual game buyers aren’t much luckier, as resale prices rarely dip until right before kickoff.

The bigger issue? With NFL franchise valuations exploding, it feels increasingly tone-deaf for the league to squeeze every last dollar from fans. According to Forbes, the average NFL team is now worth over $5.1 billion, a number that has more than doubled in the last decade. The Dallas Cowboys sit atop the list at a staggering $9.2 billion valuation, while even smaller-market teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars are worth north of $4 billion.

Despite these astronomical valuations — and record-setting TV deals, streaming partnerships, and sponsorship revenues — fans continue to shoulder ever-rising costs. Preseason ticket pricing is just one example of a broader trend across professional sports: leagues maximizing revenue streams while testing the limits of fan loyalty.

The NFL isn’t alone. The NBA charges premium prices for midweek matchups when star players frequently sit out due to “load management.” MLB pushes dynamic ticket pricing to capitalize on rivalry games while cutting minor league jobs to reduce costs. Across the board, sports leagues have leaned into a philosophy where maximizing profits often outweighs improving fan experience.

For many fans, paying full price for preseason games feels like the ultimate insult. You’re essentially investing in a product that teams openly admit isn’t designed to be competitive or meaningful. While owners defend it as part of the “business model,” it raises a fair question: how much is too much when teams are already worth billions?

The NFL recently extended its media rights deal with Amazon, ESPN, Fox, NBC, and CBS — a $110 billion behemoth set to run through 2033. With that kind of financial security, it’s reasonable for fans to expect at least some relief at the ticket window. Yet, there’s little sign the league plans to change its approach. As long as demand remains sky-high and stadiums stay full, the NFL has little incentive to rethink its pricing model.

At some point, though, the greed could backfire. Younger fans already consume sports differently, leaning on highlights and streaming rather than shelling out for expensive tickets. If leagues keep prioritizing short-term profits over long-term loyalty, they risk alienating the next generation of fans — the very people who will sustain these billion-dollar valuations in the future.

Until that tipping point arrives, expect the NFL and other leagues to keep charging full price for preseason games — and almost everything else. For billionaire owners, it’s business as usual. For fans, it’s another reminder that loyalty often costs more than it should.