The Detroit Lions are keeping season ticket prices level heading into the 2022 season, according to an email sent to season-ticket holders on Thursday.
“As we prepare for the 2022-23 season, I want to acknowledge where we are as an organization,” an attached message from team president Rod Wood said. “We understand that our results last season weren’t good enough and I speak for everyone at the Lions when I tell you that we are committed to being better on and off the field.”
In reality, tickets will actually be a better value next season. That’s because the team is scheduled to host nine home games in the regular season and just one in the preseason, as part of the league’s shift to a 17-game schedule starting last year.
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Beyond the pricing, the team is also offering a choice of two exclusive incentives to season-ticket holders, which include virtual Q&A sessions with general manager Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell, tours of Ford Field or the team’s practice facility in Allen Park, video board recognition or a junior training camp for kids.
The Lions will be looking to bounce back from last year’s disappointing home attendance. The franchise averaged a league-worst 51,522 paid tickets last season, its worst since the 2009 season.
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There was also a report last October from the “Sports Business Journal” that the Lions had been one of the teams criticized for poor ticket sales by the league during a conference call with top executives.
“During a presentation from Bobby Gallo, NFL senior vice president of club business development, five logos appeared on the screen: those of the Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets and the Washington Football Team,” the publication wrote. “It was, Gallo explained, a listing of the teams with at least 15,000 unsold tickets on average for the upcoming season.
“…There was no explicit chastisement, but there didn’t have to be,” the story continued. “To some league veterans, the slide spoke volumes — it was interpreted as Commissioner Roger Goodell calling out certain owners in front of their peers for business underperformance. While owners have challenged each other semi-publicly in the past, this was unprecedented.”
Despite the sagging attendance and disappointing on-field results in 2021, Wood’s email praised the first-year efforts of Holmes and Campbell.
“The last year has confirmed for the entire organization that we have the right people in place to achieve our goal of creating sustained success in Detroit,” the email read. “The work that Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell have done to create a plan for the future of this team is evident every day in our building. The work we did this year to establish a culture of collaboration, grit and resilience will serve as a foundation for where we are headed.”
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers