The Vikings tried to get some of their fans to Detroit for the biggest game of the regular season, but things didn’t go according to plan.
After a few months of speculation, we are finally getting exactly what the NFL wanted all along. A matchup for all of the regular season marbles on “Sunday Night Football” between the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings to decide both the 2024 NFC North champion, and the number one playoff seed for the conference.
Luckily for the Lions, they have one of the bigger home-field advantages in the league at Ford Field, and Sunday night’s atmosphere should be one for the books. Knowing this, the Vikings made an effort to get some of their most loyal fans to the game. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t go off without complications. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated wrote about just how far Minnesota went to try and make this happen.
“Given the uniqueness of this game, we wanted to offer our stakeholders—staff, family, season ticket members and team partners—an opportunity to attend,” said Vikings team spokesman Jeff Anderson.
Essentially, the team bought nearly $2 millions worth of tickets with the idea of selling them to their season ticket holders at a discounted price—a nice gesture by the club. However, not everything went according to plan and some of the tickets ended up back on the secondary market anyways.
One ticketholder sold their seat on the secondary market for $724. The buyer then turned around and sold the ticket to Advantage Tickets, a company the Vikings worked with, for $1,200. The Vikings then sold the ticket to a season ticket holder for $300. The season ticket holder, in turn, sold it on the secondary market for $690. That buyer was, potentially, a broker, since the ticket is back on the market again.
You can read the entire story from Breer right here. I will also leave you with this tweet from our own Erik Schlitt about the whole ticket conversation.
The Vikings spent $2M on less than 2000 tickets (roughly $1000 a pop) and then sold them for around $200 to Vikings fans.
So, the Vikings are going to potentially take a $1.6M bath to send less than 2000 fans into a den of 60,000 Lions fans. https://t.co/ftgy7qPA2a
— Erik Schlitt (@erikschlitt) January 4, 2025
And now, onto the rest of today’s notes:
- Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press wrote about how Lions coach Dan Campbell’s Texas roots are serving him now as one of the best leaders in all of football.
We can never read enough about Dan Campbell. Or enough from @MitchAlbom. https://t.co/dknNBc1H4N
— Dan Pompei (@danpompei) January 5, 2025
- Is it 8:20 yet?
More fight, more heart, more grit pic.twitter.com/EqfXVXybd4
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 5, 2025
- Pretty good.
Dan Campbell made a guest appearance on @NFLGameDay @SteveMariucci pic.twitter.com/5sOceGnX8v
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) January 5, 2025
Detroit Lions ‘seek blood’ in winner-take-all game vs. Minnesota Vikings https://t.co/0MCOhkqg3O via @freep
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) January 5, 2025
- Another fantastic breakdown of Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown from NFL legend Steve Smith.
- More great content from the folks over at NFL Matchup on ESPN.
#Skol vs. #OnePride ! @GregCosell breaks down the ultimate matchup between Brian Flores’ defense and Ben Johnson’s offense.@DariusJButler | @GregCosell pic.twitter.com/VbTco8KkST
— NFL Matchup on ESPN (@NFLMatchup) January 4, 2025
- Some fallout from the minor skirmish between the Lions and San Francisco 49ers in Week 17.
The NFL fined WR Jauan Jennings $11,817 for unnecessary roughness for the 1Q incident Monday behind the end zone. Lions DBs Terrion Arnold & Kerby Joseph were fined $11,817 and $7,505 for the same incident.
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) January 4, 2025
