A new study by ticket comparison site Ticket Compare analyzed which NFL teams are losing the most revenue due to ticket prices and empty seats during their home games.
The results are surprising, to put it mildly.
The group analyzed 22 NFL teams that were unable to fill their stadiums last season and found that the Kansas City Chiefs , last year's Super Bowl runner-ups, winners of the previous two championships, and a team that has been in five of the past six big games, led the way.
And it wasn't even close.
The team hyped by the league due to its Taylor Swift connection couldn't even come close to filling Arrowhead Stadium last season, despite being the defending champs.
With an average ticket cost just a shade over $100 and over 21,000 unfilled seats on average, the Chiefs came out on top of this dubious list, having lost $2,164,542 per home game due to the lack of attendance.
"The Chiefs losing over $2 million per game from empty seats is remarkable considering their recent on-field success – and especially when considering Taylor Swift's frequent appearances and the low average ticket cost of just over $100," said Ticket Compare CEO Liran Froind.
The Chiefs not only led the list, they dominated it, with the next closest NFL team in losing revenue from unsold seats being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers , at $803,081.
Kansas City nearly triples that figure.
Rounding out the top 5 were the Las Vegas Raiders ($686,475), the Minnesota Vikings ($590,832), and another surprise entry in the Green Bay Packers ($574,146).
Froind notes that there doesn't seem to be any correlation with ticket prices when it comes to their study's results, either.
"What's particularly interesting is that ticket price doesn't always correlate with attendance," he said. "Some teams with higher-priced tickets still manage to fill their stadiums, while others with more affordable options see thousands of empty seats each game."
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According to the analysis, not every NFL team is suffering a significant revenue hit like the Chiefs. In fact, ten teams reported zero empty seats last season. They are:
Other teams, such as the Seattle Seahawks ($10,800) and the Cleveland Browns ($14,534), managed to keep their empty seats to a minimum, thereby blunting the effect of per-game revenue loss.
But it's the Chiefs who are the biggest losers in this department.
"While not all NFL teams struggle to fill their stadiums, with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys consistently exceeding their seated capacity per match last season, it's clear that some did consistently lose revenue from unfilled seats," Froind explained.
"While losing around $2 million won't break the bank for the Chiefs, it is interesting to see what empty seats equate to. It'll be interesting to see whether a similar loss will be seen this season, or if average home attendance will pick back up."
What's interesting is that even with the possibility of watching Super Bowl-caliber football and maybe even getting a glimpse of the hottest pop star in the world, Kansas City is still seeing roughly a quarter of its stadium empty.
Maybe they should consider moving to Dallas after all.
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