What’s happened to the Seahawks’ home-field advantage?

Dec 17, 2024, 10:13 AM

Seattle Seahawks losing homefield advantage...

Green Bay fans celebrate a Packers win over the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field on Dec. 15, 2024. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

BY ZAC HERETH

Seattle Sports

The mystique surrounding Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, seems to be fading away.

Breaking down Seahawks’ NFC West title and playoff odds

After another loss on their home field against Green Bay, the Seahawks fell to 3-5 and clinched a losing record on their own turf this season.

What was once an unthinkable trend was on full display in primetime Sunday night, as Lumen Field was packed with a boisterous group of Packers fans who at time drowned out their Seattle counterparts. Early on at the stadium – and on the NBC Sunday Night Football broadcast – a loud “Go Pack Go!” chant could be heard clearly from the crowd.

This wasn’t the first time this season that an opposing team’s fans cut into the Seahawks’ home-field advantage – the San Francisco 49ers especially had a similar backing in Seattle in October. So after Lumen Field was once again invaded by fans of another team, Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy tried to make sense of what’s happened to the Seahawks’ formerly feared home stadium.

“I have never, in the nearly 10 years I’ve covered this team, seen home-field advantage lost the way that it has been. And I, for the life of me, can’t figure out exactly what’s going on behind the scenes,” Stacy Rost said.

Michael Bumpus, a Seahawks Radio Network analyst who played wide receiver for the franchise, has certainly noticed the change on his Sundays at the stadium.

“I walk the stadium before every game, and every game I get more and more disappointed because I feel like somebody is in our house without our permission,” he said. “They got great seats and they’re making themselves at home and they’re talking trash and they’re supporting their teams.”

According to Bumpus, the fans do make a difference.

“When I used to travel on the road, I liked road games because I liked getting booed,” Bumpus said. “But there’s nothing like the roar of support that’s helping you. We need to get that back.”

What’s the problem?

When discussing why the Seahawks are seeing more opposing fans at games, Rost and Bumpus delved into a few of the reasons they’ve consistently heard from fans.

“It’s tough. I think there are a couple (reasons) going on,” Bumpus said. “I think season-ticket holders are trying to get their money back. How do you do that? You sell your tickets. I also think that this team isn’t seen as an NFC power, so fans are less likely to go to these games. It leaves tickets open for fans like the Packers’ to get there and take this thing over.”

In the case of the Packers specifically, the swell of Green Bay fans at Lumen Field could be attributed in part to the difficulties of getting tickets to Green Bay home games. According to greenbayticketservice.com, the wait list for season tickets to Packers games is over 90,000 names long. The Packers’ website touts that its season tickets have been sold out since 1960.

“But we’re seeing this happen in multiple games,” Bumpus said. “I remember the Denver game it was crazy, the Miami game, of course the 49ers game, the Rams game – they’re taking over.”

The main culprit that Bump and Stacy feel is attributing to the opposing fan takeovers is ever-rising costs of attending games.

USA Today reported that the average price of an NFL ticket rose from $235 in 2022 to $377 in 2023. That follows a decades-long trend across all sports. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average ticket price for sporting events rose over twice as fast overall consumer products from 1999 through 2020.

According to the Seahawks’ website, season tickets currently range from $1,030 to $5,240 per seat for a full season. The price of single-game tickets can vary greatly as teams have switched to variable pricing, making games against less popular teams cheaper and those against big brands and heated rivals more expensive. The cheapest tickets on Ticketmaster for this Sunday’s upcoming home Seahawks game against the Minnesota Vikings were listed at $135 as of Monday afternoon.

“It’s unfortunate because the people who aren’t making the majority of the money are probably the most loyal fans out there,” Bumpus said. “The blue collar, hard-working people who genuinely love this team are being kicked out of the stadium because they can’t afford it.”

Another factor that’s come up in relation to the Seahawks is season-ticket holders selling tickets to fans of opposing teams. With the emergence of second-market ticketing sites, it’s become easier for resold tickets to fall into the hands of opposing fans. Sellers oftentimes don’t know who they are selling the tickets to.

“I’ve heard lots of interesting things that, as someone who’s never been a season-ticket holder, I wasn’t privy to,” Rost said. “(A texter from) the 360 (area code) said, ‘I’ve been a season-ticket holder for 20 years. Most Packers fans I’ve ever seen last night.’ They said, ‘It’s unfortunate, but for fans that can’t make the game, they’re forced to use the NFL Ticket Exchange because if we sell to someone we don’t know and then they become belligerent, we can have our tickets revoked if we don’t use the NFL Ticket Exchange.'”

Unfortunately for the Seahawks, they’ve seemed to feel the impact of a less supportive crowd at home games. From when Lumen Field opened in 2002 through 2020, Seattle was 106-43 at home with 13 winning seasons and just two losing seasons. Since 2021, Seattle is just 16-17 at home and has matched its two losing seasons from the prior 19-season stretch.

“I don’t even think there’s a 12th man right now,” Bumpus said. “It’s like 11 1/2 or 11 1/4 or something. I’m not saying this to make anybody feel bad for not going, because I understand how (expensive) it is.”

Hear the full Bump and Stacy conversation in the final segment of the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Catch Bump and Stacy live on Seattle Sports from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays.