The San Francisco 49ers became the latest California NFL team to play in front of a half-empty stadium on Thursday night.
The 70,000-seat Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara was supposedly sold out for the 49ers’ 41-39 loss to the visiting Los Angeles Rams, but many of those in attendance posted pictures of vast sections of empty seats on social media.
Even before the game, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the 49ers were in danger of drawing the worst crowd in their four seasons since moving to Santa Clara, which is over an hour away from their previous home at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Officially the cheapest face value tickets for 49ers games are $85, but re-ticketing websites such as StubHub reportedly had tickets as low as $14 for sale.
Officially, a near-capacity crowd of 70,000 fans watched the San Francisco 49ers lose to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday, but only a fraction of that figure was actually in attendance
‘The current get-in price of $17 is the Niners’ cheapest game this season with an average asking price of $88 — also the cheapest of the season,’ Ralph Garcia of ticket aggregator TicketIQ told the Chronicle. ‘The average ticket price across all remaining home games for them is $179. This is, however, the 49ers’ cheapest home game since the move to Levi’s. The previous low was Dec. 11, 2016 vs. the Jets.’
Garcia said the 49ers have seen the average list ticket price decline 32 percent since the stadium opened in 2014, according to their internal numbers.
Typically, re-ticketing websites buy tickets in bulk in hopes of re-selling them for a profit. But, as was the case on Thursday night, the websites can overestimate demand from time to time.
Similarly, the 49ers sold out a Thursday-night game against the visiting Arizona Cardinals last October, but Levi’s Stadium appeared to be only half full at most.
The 49ers have struggled to sell tickets since moving from San Francisco to Santa Clara in 2014. The 49ers are one of four California NFL franchises that have moved or plan to do so
The 49ers are just one of four California NFL franchises that have recently moved or plan on relocating after struggling to secure public funding for a stadium. Last season the Rams moved back to Los Angeles after playing in St. Louis for 20 years, and this year the Chargers returned to Los Angeles for the first time since the franchise moved to San Diego in 1961.
The Oakland Raiders, who also previously played in Los Angeles, are planning on moving to Las Vegas.
The Rams have played two games at a half-full L.A. Coliseum, where USC and Texas recently drew over 90,000 fans to a game.
For the time being, the Chargers are currently playing in a temporary stadium that was built for soccer. Still, they failed to sell out the 30,000-seat building, drawing only 25,381 fans for their home opener.
Ticket prices for the 49ers have already fallen considerably and that trend should continue
And a small crowd isn’t the only bad publicity for the Chargers.
‘No Freaking Loyalty,’ reads an electronic billboard positioned near the Chargers’ temporary new home, with the first letter of each word in glowing red so as to spell out ‘NFL.’ Pictured to the left of the text is the image of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
The billboard is the brainchild of Chargers fan Joseph Macrae, who raised over $10,000 for the project with a GoFundMe campaign aimed at holding the NFL and team owners accountable for relocating franchises away from longtime supporters. It can be seen on the corner of Main Street and southbound Interstate 405, near the StubHub Center, according to Fox 5 San Diego.