The Minnesota Vikings announced this week that they are raising the price of 2010 season tickets by an average of 3 percent. The price increase comes before any announcement by Brett Favre about whether or not he’ll be rejoining the team next season.
Now Vikings season tickets will cost anywhere between $29 to $128 a game, as opposed to the $25 to $123 per-game cost range that was in effect the past two years. The Vikings will keep 14 percent of tickets at the same price or reduce their price; those tickets are in the upper deck of the Metrodome.
Vikings chief marketing officer Steve LaCroix told the Star Tribune that despite the price increase, the Vikings still have one of the most affordable tickets in the NFL.
“While we could not realistically duplicate the flat pricing structure of last season, we wanted to make the increase as minimal as possible to acknowledge the commitment of our season-ticket owners,” said LaCroix. “We wanted to continue one of the NFL’s lowest priced season-ticket offerings at $29 per game, while keeping nearly 9,000 tickets priced the same or less.”
The Metrodome has a seating capacity of 63,700, the second smallest in the league.
Two other teams in the NFL’s NFC Central Division have announced ticket price increases for 2010. The Green Bay Packers will increase prices by an average of $9 and the Chicago Bears will increase their ticket price by $2 to $17 a seat.
“I think that the fan response to the price increase will probably come down to whether or not Brett Favre decides to come back next season,” Cortney Storsved, director of operations for Minnesota’s Ticket King, told TicketNews. “If he doesn’t, a lot of fans will probably use the price increase as their excuse for dropping their season tickets.”
The Vikings have a record of 126 consecutive sellouts of their season tickets. First payment for 2010 renewal is March 12.
Favre, who led the Vikings to playoffs before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, will be speaking publicly for the first time since the loss tonight, March 4, on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.
