What It Costs a Family to See an NFL Game in 2026, Across the Country and for London Fans

By Guy Bruhn

For the typical American family, seeing the nearest NFL game this season costs an estimated $1,351. That buys four seats together at the median resale asking price for a mid-priced remaining home game, plus parking, hot dogs and drinks inside the stadium, and the drive, and it comes to about 16% of the median family's monthly income. At the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, that's about 186 hours of work, more than four full 40-hour weeks.

Doc's Sports, home of free NFL expert picks, priced a trip to the nearest NFL stadium from 3,139 U.S. counties, every one but five, using the median price of the four-seat blocks listed for every remaining 2026 home game, real road distances, current gas prices, federal hotel and airfare data, and Census income figures.

Key Takeaways

The typical family pays an estimated $1,351 to see one game, about 16% of a month's family income. Tickets are most of the bill, more than 80% of the cost in 2,190 of 3,139 counties.
Ticket prices vary more than fivefold. Four seats together at a typical remaining home game run $2,810 for the Chicago Bears, the most of any team, and $476 for the New York Jets, the least.
The whole trip costs the least near Nashville. In Davidson County, Tennessee, home of the Tennessee Titans, it comes to an estimated $631 for a family of four. Among counties of a million or more people, Hillsborough County, Florida, costs the least, at an estimated $683.
Cook County, Illinois, is the most expensive big county, at an estimated $2,949, driven by Chicago Bears ticket prices.
One game takes an estimated 61% of a month's income in Glacier County, Montana, the highest share in the lower 48 states among counties of 10,000 or more people with reliable income figures.
Alaska and Hawaii families face the biggest bills, because the trip starts with four plane tickets: an estimated $4,706 from Anchorage and $5,124 from Honolulu.
At face value, a London family of four would have paid about £626 to £833 ($833 to $1,108) to see one of this season's three London games.

Tickets Are Most of the Bill, From $476 to $2,810 for Four Seats

Tickets are the biggest part of the trip in 3,129 of the 3,139 counties; only in 10 Alaska boroughs and census areas, where families fly, does airfare cost more. Four tickets are more than 80% of the estimated cost in 2,190 counties and more than half in all but 33. Across the 148 remaining regular-season home games, Doc's Sports recorded the median price of the listings that could be bought as a block of four seats, with fees included, and took each team's typical (median) game. The median team comes to $1,151 for four. Chicago Bears tickets cost the most ($2,810 for four at a typical remaining home game), followed by San Francisco 49ers ($2,354) and Seattle Seahawks ($2,218). New York Jets ($476), Tennessee Titans ($516), and Tampa Bay Buccaneers ($547) cost the least. These are mid-priced seats, not the cheapest. Of the listings priced near each game's median, 60% are in 100-level sections, often in a corner or end zone. Families willing to sit higher up can pay less.

The rest of the bill depends on how far a family lives from the stadium. Most Americans, 92%, live within 250 road miles and can go and come back in a day. Their median trip costs an estimated $1,334, with gas adding about $29. Families 250 to 500 miles away add a hotel night for one room, about $169, and their median trip costs $1,850. Beyond 500 miles it's two nights, about $345, and a median of $2,450. Families in Alaska and Hawaii fly. Four round-trip tickets average $2,242, and the median trip costs $5,124. Parking runs from free in the Patriots' lots across Route 1 to about $82 near Lambeau Field. Food and drinks inside the stadium, four hot dogs, four sodas and two beers, add an estimated $80 at Lambeau Field's prices, which the study uses for every stadium but Atlanta's ($34), where hot dogs and sodas are $2.

The Cheapest and Most Expensive Counties for an NFL Trip

Families nearest the Tennessee Titans pay the least. Davidson County, Tennessee, has the lowest estimated cost in the country, $631, and all 10 of the cheapest counties are Titans trips. The Jets have the lowest ticket prices in the league, but they share MetLife Stadium with the Giants, and counties nearest MetLife are priced at a Giants game, the pricier of the two. A Jets game there costs $518 less for four tickets. Among counties of a million or more people, the cheapest estimated trips are Hillsborough County, Florida ($683), Orange County, Florida ($710), Cuyahoga County, Ohio ($735) and Montgomery County, Maryland ($830).

In the lower 48 states, the most expensive trips are all Chicago Bears trips, from counties in Illinois, Iowa and Michigan where Soldier Field is the nearest stadium. Greene County, Illinois, tops the list at an estimated $3,231. Five of the 10 priciest counties sit just past 250 road miles, where the trip adds a hotel night. All 10 of them have a second stadium about as close: Greene County, Illinois, for example, is just 6 miles closer to Soldier Field than to the Colts' stadium, and a Colts trip comes to an estimated $1,245. Among big counties, Cook County, Illinois ($2,949), Fresno County, California ($2,589), Sacramento County, California ($2,571) and Contra Costa County, California ($2,534) have the highest estimated costs.

Where One NFL Game Takes the Biggest Bite of a Family's Income

Cost is only half the story. Measured against each county's median family income, one game takes the biggest share in counties far from a stadium. Seven of the top 10 are more than 250 road miles from the nearest stadium, and four are Seahawks trips. In Glacier County, Montana, a family's trip to see the Seattle Seahawks costs an estimated $2,995, 61% of a month's median family income. One game takes more than a quarter of a month's income in 923 lower-48 counties with a reliable income estimate. It takes the smallest share in Falls Church city, Virginia, an estimated 4% of a month's income.

Incomes are the Census Bureau's newest county figures, in 2024 dollars, while the prices are from fall 2026, so these shares run somewhat high (see Limitations).

An NFL Trip Costs an Estimated $436 More Than in 2016, but Family Incomes Kept Pace

From 2016 to 2024, the average NFL ticket rose 47%, from $92.75 to $136.38, according to Team Marketing Report's Fan Cost Index. Its 2024 edition is the most recent. That's faster than consumer prices overall, which rose 31% over the same years.

Doc's Sports used those changes to estimate each county's trip at 2016 prices, scaling tickets by Team Marketing Report's league-average change, scaling gas by the actual change in pump prices since late October 2016 in the family's state or region, and scaling parking, food, hotels and airfare by their federal price indexes. For the typical family, the same trip would have cost an estimated $915 in 2016. Today it's about $1,351, up $436 or about 48%.

Family incomes rose about as fast. The typical family's median income (the population-weighted median county) rose about 50%, from $66,242 to $99,375, between the Census Bureau's five-year estimates ending in 2016 and those ending in 2024, its newest. Nationally, median family income rose 47%, from $67,871 to $99,999. So the trip takes about the same bite of a month's income as it did then, an estimated 16.6% in 2016 and 16.3% now, and 16.2% both years against the national median family income. The share went up in 1,845 counties, where incomes grew more slowly (a population-weighted median of 41%), and down in 1,285, where they grew faster (54%). Each group is home to about half of Americans. Because the newest incomes stop at 2024 and wages have kept rising since, today's share is likely a little lower.

Each index runs ten years back from the month our price comes from, or from the newest month BLS has published (food and beer Sept. 2025; parking Sept. 2026, or Sept. 2025 for the $72 allowance; hotels and airfare the newest November-January, 2025-26). From Sept. 2016 to Sept. 2026, airline fares rose 18%. Using Sept. 2016 to Sept. 2026 for every part, the typical family's 2016 trip is $913.

Alaska and Hawaii Families Face the Biggest NFL Bills

For families in Alaska and Hawaii, the nearest NFL game starts at the airport. Doc's Sports priced four round-trip flights to the nearest stadium city, Seattle for Alaska and the San Francisco Bay Area for Hawaii, plus two hotel nights. A family from Anchorage would spend an estimated $4,706 to see the Seahawks, about 46% of a month's income. From Honolulu, a 49ers game costs about $5,124. Los Angeles is only a slightly longer flight from Honolulu, and a Los Angeles Rams trip there would cost about $4,296. Remote parts of Alaska with expensive flights face the biggest bills in the country.

What an NFL Game Costs a Family in Every State

The table ranks states by the share of a month's income one game takes in each state's middle county (the population-weighted median of its county shares), a different measure from the national 16%.

The Least Affordable County in Every State

Among counties with at least 10,000 residents and a reliable income estimate, these are where one game takes the biggest share of a month's income in each state.

What a London NFL Game Cost a Local Family This Season

The NFL played three regular-season games in London this season, two at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one at Wembley. For a London family of four, a day at one of them would have cost about £626 to £833 at face value, or $833 to $1,108. That covers four tickets in the game's middle price category, a return Tube trip from central London and a pie or sausage roll each inside the stadium. A London family doesn't need parking or a hotel, so tickets are almost the whole bill.

The Eagles and Jaguars game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium cost the most, £833 ($833), about 15% of a month's pay. Four tickets in the middle category at Tottenham came to about $988 to $1,041, somewhat below the $1,151 asking price for four resale seats at the median NFL team's typical home game in the U.S., though London's figures are face value, not resale.

Families with children could pay less. The Tottenham games sold child tickets in two categories, from £39.89, and Wembley sold under-16 tickets at £51 in three categories. Children under 11 ride the Tube free with an adult.

Look Up the Cost of an NFL Game for Every County

The full county table is data/county_table.csv in the attached files. Search the table below for any county to see its nearest stadium, the total cost, and its share of the county's median family income.

For more on the season, see Doc's Sports' weekly NFL power rankings and its free NFL expert picks for this week's games.

Methodology

Sources

Tickets: Gametime listings captured Oct. 28, 2026.
Parking: team websites, ParkWhiz (Oct. 29, 2026) and Doc's Sports' tailgating study. Food: Lambeau Field prices (FOX11, Sept. 2025) and Mercedes-Benz Stadium's posted prices.
Gas: AAA state averages (Oct. 29, 2026) at 23.4 miles per gallon (Federal Highway Administration, 2024). Hotels: GSA FY2027 per diem rates. Airfare: the Transportation Department's DB1C sample, Nov. 2025 to Jan. 2026. Roads: OpenStreetMap (OSRM).
Income: Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 and 2012-2016 five-year median family income (B19113). Population: Census 2025 estimates. Minimum wage: U.S. Department of Labor ($7.25 an hour).
Ten years ago: Team Marketing Report's Fan Cost Index (2016, 2024), EIA weekly gas prices, and BLS CPI-U, not seasonally adjusted (SS52051 parking, SEFV food, SEFX alcohol, SEHB02 hotels, SETG01 airfare, SA0 all items, SS62032 sporting events).
London: NFL and club ticket pages, Transport for London, the Office for National Statistics' earnings survey and the Bank of England.

What We Did With the Data

Each county's trip runs from its population center to the stadium with the fewest road miles. The cost is four tickets, parking, a stadium food basket of four hot dogs, four sodas and two beers, and gas (round-trip miles divided by 23.4, times the state's price). Each part is rounded to the dollar before adding.

Tickets cover every 2026 home game from Nov. 5 on (148 games, international games excluded). Gametime returns about 60 listings per game that sell four seats together; each game's price is their median all-in price before sales tax (standing room excluded), and each team's is the median of its remaining games.

Parking is the team's posted price (5 teams), else the ParkWhiz median near the stadium (22 teams), else the $72 figure from Doc's Sports' tailgating study (Bills, Chiefs, Giants, Jets, Commanders). Shared stadiums use the pricier team (Giants, Rams). The data table lists every county's next-nearest stadium; in 382 lower-48 counties it is within 15 road miles or 10%.

Trips over 250 road miles each way add one hotel night, and over 500 miles two, for one room at the GSA rate averaged over November through January. Alaska and Hawaii counties fly to the nearest stadium city: four round trips at twice the median one-way fare, plus tickets, food and two nights, with no parking or gas.

Share of income is the cost divided by one-twelfth of median family income, and days of income is the cost divided by a workday's income (median family income divided by 260). Typical figures are population-weighted medians of the counties, and the typical family's share is the typical trip divided by one-twelfth of the typical median family income. A state's share is the population-weighted median of its county shares. Income-share rankings use the 2,398 counties with 10,000 or more residents and an income margin of error under 25%. Counts of counties above a share of income use the 3,041 counties of any size with an income margin of error under 25% (3,009 in the lower 48).

The 2016 comparison covers 3,130 counties. Connecticut's planning regions have no 2016 match, and Alaska's Chugach and Copper River census areas use the 2016 income of the former Valdez-Cordova Census Area. On those counties the typical trip is $916 at 2016 prices and $1,351 now.

Limitations

Tickets are asking prices on one marketplace on one day; buyers can pay less. With the cheapest four seats, the typical cost is $685.

Few teams publish regular concession prices, so 31 teams use Lambeau's 2025 prices. At Atlanta's prices everywhere, it's $1,305.

Game-weekend hotels can cost more than the federal rate. At its $113 standard rate, the median one-night trip is $1,771.

Fares are from Nov. 2025 to Jan. 2026, and the airline fare index was 22% higher in Sept. 2026 than a year earlier, so flying totals may run low. Routes for Aleutians West, Bristol Bay, Dillingham, North Slope, Northwest Arctic and Yakutat rest on fewer than 50 sampled passengers, and communities off the road system are priced from their hub airport, so treat those totals with care.

Incomes are in 2024 dollars, while prices are from fall 2026. Wages have risen about 7% to 8% since 2024 (BLS Employment Cost Index and average hourly earnings). With incomes 7% to 8% higher, the typical family's share would be about 15% instead of 16%, and one game would take more than a quarter of a month's income in about 753 to 778 lower-48 counties instead of 923.

Team Marketing Report's average is a face-value, league-wide figure that stops at 2024, so ticket changes since then aren't counted (the price index for sporting-event admissions fell 1.1% from Sept. 2024 to Sept. 2026).

The nearest stadium isn't always a family's team. San Juan County, Washington, and four counties without an income estimate (Kalawao, Hawaii; Kenedy, King and Loving, Texas) aren't included. London uses face-value tickets and one worker's pay, so it isn't comparable with U.S. counties.

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