This past weekend marked the official start of NFL season and NFL stadiums were all over TicketNews’ exclusive venues rankings for the week ending Sunday, September 11.
The New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, was the highest ranking of four NFL stadiums to make it to the list this week, finishing at No. 4. The most expensive NFL stadium ever built to date, as well as the largest in terms of permanent seats, houses two popular New York area teams, the New York Giants and New York Jets. Both teams had emotional season openers on September 11 with pre-game tributes in both the New Meadowlands Stadium, which stands 12 miles from Ground Zero, and FedEx Field in Landover, MD, home of Giants’ Week 1 opponents the Washington Redskins which is nearby to the site of the crash at the Pentagon ten years ago.
The home stadiums of both of the New York teams’ opponents fared well this week as well, with the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX in at No. 6, and FedEx Field at No. 10 leading up to the Redskins home opener on the 12th. Miami Dolphins fans took Sun Life Stadium to No. 8 this week behind last night’s home opener against the New England Patriots in the first Monday night football match up of the season which was won by the Patriots 38-24 behind 517 passing yards from Tom Brady.
In other sports, this month’s U.S. Open Tennis Championship kept Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, NY, strong in the top ten this week, finishing at No. 3. Following a notable increase of 38 percent in ticket resales this year, the Open was plagued last week by rain delays on successive days, and organizers scrambled to make up featured men’s matches as prominent players like Rafael Nadal complained about referees initially forcing play in the rain.
The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV, performed well this week, coming in at No. 2 as fans line up to buy tickets to two highly anticipated boxing events. The first of those events will take place this weekend when Floyd Mayweather, Jr. meets WBC World Welterweight Champion Victor Ortiz on September 17. Current WBO Welterweight World Champion, and possible future Mayweather opponent, Manny Pacquiao will face Juan Manuel Márquez on November 12.
For the tenth time in eleven weeks, sales for The Book of Mormon took the Eugene O’Neill Theatre to the top of the week’s venue rankings, as well as maintaining the musical’s No. 1 status on TicketNews’ Top Broadway list. With news out last week that producers plan to launch two touring companies next year – one starting in August 2012 in Denver, the next in Chicago in December of that year – there should be plenty more money to be made from this satirical tale of two Mormon missionaries in Uganda.
TicketNews Exclusive Rankings and Power Scores are based on ticket sales for venues from the TicketNetwork Exchange™, the world’s largest secondary market exchange. A Power Score illustrates a given venue’s category-specific significance. Two factors are used to calculate a power score: total ticket sales for a venue, and total ticket sales within the category. As such, power scores should only be used to compare venues within a particular category.
| Venue | Score | |
| 1 | Eugene Oneill Theatre Tickets | 2.94 |
| 2 | MGM Grand Garden Arena Tickets | 2.00 |
| 3 | Arthur Ashe Stadium Tickets | 1.99 |
| 4 | New Meadowlands Stadium Tickets | 1.79 |
| 5 | Madison Square Garden Tickets | 1.74 |
| 6 | Dallas Cowboys Stadium Tickets | 1.43 |
| 7 | Caesars Palace – Colosseum Tickets | 1.22 |
| 8 | Sun Life Stadium (Formerly Dolphin Stadium) Tickets | 1.04 |
| 9 | Gershwin Theatre Tickets | 0.99 |
| 10 | Fedex Field Tickets | 0.94 |
| 11 | Yankee Stadium Tickets | 0.93 |
| 12 | Lambeau Field Tickets | 0.92 |
| 13 | TD Garden (Fleet Center) Tickets | 0.92 |
| 14 | Qualcomm Stadium Tickets | 0.92 |
| 15 | Soldier Field Stadium Tickets | 0.87 |
| 16 | Kyle Field Tickets | 0.86 |
| 17 | Gillette Stadium Tickets | 0.85 |
| 18 | The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Tickets | 0.85 |
| 19 | Sports Authority Field At Mile High Tickets | 0.85 |
| 20 | Candlestick Park Tickets | 0.84 |
