The majority of prices for Dolphins season tickets "will either stay flat or decrease" in '17 as the team is coming off its first postseason appearance in eight years, according to Adam Beasley of the MIAMI HERALD. The club additionally will make around 12,000 seats "available for $45 a game and roughly 24,000 for $55 or under in the coming year." Dolphins Senior VP & CMO Jeremy Walls said that season-ticket renewal rates are at a "10-year high." Beasley noted the organization has already "accepted around 6,000 new season-ticket deposits, which the Dolphins will begin processing next month." After a long stretch of "dwindling interest, the Dolphins have seen attendance strengthen in recent years." Their "average attendance per game was 65,512" in '16, which was more than 100% of its announced capacity and up some 15% from '12 lows (MIAMIHERALD.com, 2/16).
LIONS DEN: In Detroit, Dave Birkett notes Lions President Rod Wood insisted that this year's increase in ticket prices was "not done to offset the enhancements to Ford Field" that were announced Wednesday. Wood said that the organization "took a 'very strategic' approach to this year's price hike, intentionally keeping some of its lowest price points intact." Wood: "About 30,000 seats, almost 50% of the stadium, were the same or lower-priced than they were last year. We’re still in the bottom half of the NFL (in average price). I’m very sensitive to what it costs to come to a game and want to make it affordable, because we do want our stadium to be full and we want it to create the home-field advantage." He added, "We tried to be very strategic and not price ourselves out of the market, but also price up where we could, based upon demand. So it was more strategic than just an across-the-board price increase" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 2/17).
