The National Football League (NFL) is, by far, the most popular sport in the United States. If you’re looking for an event that the locals care about, there’s nothing that comes close to a football game. Each team only plays 17 games in the regular season - which is just 8 or 9 home games each year - so every game is meaningful.

Like all major sports leagues around the world, the NFL has committed to mobile-only ticketing for its events. There are a handful of different ticketing platforms that have been adopted by the clubs to facilitate this - e.g. Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, etc - but the process for each is similar.

Regardless of destination, here's what travellers can expect for NFL tickets booked through Sports Where I Am partners:

How National Football League ticketing works

For NFL tickets booked through a Sports Where I Am solution, here are the steps involved:

• 1. A customer email address will be required during the booking process.

  Most leagues, teams & venues around the world have made a push towards mobile ticketing in the interest of security & convenience. This means that we require a customer email for sports & events bookings so that the ticket transfer can be sent directly to the event attendee.
  
  
  
  We only use this email address for ticket delivery, though, and we will not send your customer any follow-up marketing materials. 

• 2. We send travel-appropriate instructions & mobile ticket transfer directly to the customer.

  
  
  

  When the tickets are ready to be transferred, we'll send instructions directly to the customer email address supplied.

  In almost all cases, the end customer will be required to create an account (and possibly download an App) in order to accept their ticket transfer. We’ll send the relevant instructions to the customer email supplied.

• 3. After accepting the ticket transfer, the customer will access their tickets on their mobile device.

  
  
  After accepting the ticket transfer, the customer will access the tickets on their mobile device to scan in at the gate on game-day.
  
  For NFL games, this will most often be via Ticketmaster - but it could also be via SeatGeek or another similar mobile ticketing platform adopted by the home team.

Key dates for the NFL football season

A yearly calendar for NBA generally looks like this:

• May
  
  • The schedule is announced for the upcoming season. Tickets available soon after.
• August - September
  
  • Pre-season games are played.
• September-January
  
  • The NFL regular season is played during these months: Each team plays 17 games in this time.
• January-February
  
  • The NFL postseason - culminating in the Super Bowl - is played at this time.
    
    

JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AUG	SEP	OCT	NOV	DEC

Football seating categories explained for travellers

Many of our partners have requested a simplified booking process for their travel customers. That's why our NFL ticket options are conveniently split into three broad sections: Budget, Regular and Premium.

As a rough rule-of-thumb, this is how that generally looks:

The 'best' football tickets are generally considered to be side-on to the field (ie on the ‘long side’) - rather than behind the endzone at either end. The top-picked spot is usually between the 20 yard lines on either side of the field.

• An example of a view from a 'Budget' seat category at a football game. Generally these are in the upper tiers & behind the end zones. (Note: This is a rough guide only)

• An example of a view from a 'Regular' seat category at a football game. These might be in upper tiers & side-on to the field. (Note: This is a rough guide only)

• An example of a view from a 'Premium' seat category at a football game. These are close to the action & with a good view of either end zone. (Note: This is a rough guide only)

There are, of course, some exceptions to this, depending on the specific NFL venue and the sections that a team might have set up. For example, there can sometimes be premium seating areas & sought-after sections in the upper levels. But the above is a general guide only.

Popular NFL destinations:

Los Angeles ↗ Las Vegas ↗ Dallas ↗