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Matches in the National Football League regularly top attendances of 80,000 and, in many cities, there is a better chance of striking gold than a fan getting their hands on a coveted ticket.
However, there have been occasions when smaller crowds have been in attendance.
Notwithstanding the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been other instances where players have been putting their bodies on the line in front of a plethora of empty seats.
It is difficult to find the true attendance figures for matches in the Super Bowl era, and the most trusted figures from the statistics gurus at the Pro-Football Reference website date back only to 1992.
So they do not include the 1987 season, which was disrupted for three weeks when the NFL Players Association went on strike and substitute players were drafted in to ensure fixtures were played.
Fans decided to stay away in support of the regular players back then and crowd numbers dwindled with several games failing to muster a five-figure gate – with the most miserable being the 4,074 souls who watched the Philadelphia Eagles lose 35-3 to the Chicago Bears that year.
That said, we could not ignore one of the most infamous NFL matches from the pre-92 era while discussing the lowest attendance numbers for NFL games. We will not consider matches from the pandemic season, however, as fan attendance was restricted.
December 1, 1985, Green Bay Packers 21 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0, Attendance: 19,856
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers travelled to Green Bay on the first day of December in 1985. The conditions were far from ideal as it snowed heavily before and during the game. Leeman Bennett’s team could not produce a resilient display on enemy territory in such hostile conditions. In the end, they had to leave the gridiron suffering a 21-0 defeat.
Fans were not eager to turn up at the Lambeau Field, braving such challenging Wisconsin weather. More than 45,000 seats were empty as only 19,856 watched the match from the stands. It was the lowest attendance the ground had seen up to that point. The match is known as the “Snow Bowl” today.
December 6, 1992, Indianapolis Colts 6 New England Patriots 0, Attendance: 19,429
10 years before the Pats won the first of their six Super Bowls under Bill Belichick, they were going through a miserable time with just two wins from 12 matches. The Foxborough faithful decided they were not going to turnout in temperatures with a wind chill of -20C to watch their sorry team take on the Colts.
They did the right thing as the Colts won 6-0 with two Dean Biasucci field goals. The only reason the game was memorable was because so few people turned up.
September 21, 1997, Baltimore Ravens 36 Tennessee Oilers 10, Attendance: 17,737
All three remaining matches on this list involve the Houston or Tennessee Oilers, who really were the least-loved franchises of the NFL between 1996 and 1997.
They announced they would be leaving their Texas base for a new home in Nashville, and the folks of Houston decided to abandon their team, even though they were due to play at the Astrodome until the end of the 1997 season.
Their 36-10 defeat in September was witnessed by fewer than 18,000 people, coming in third in the post-1992 list of lowest attendances. They also had just 20,082 people at the 29-13 win over Baltimore in their last season in Texas.
October 12, 1997, Cincinnati Bengals 7 Tennessee Oilers 30, Attendance: 17,071
In a dominant performance on October 12, 1997, the Tennessee Oilers routed the Cincinnati Bengals 30-7 at the Liberty Bowl.
Steve McNair’s 199 passing yards and three touchdowns, coupled with a stifling Oilers defence, secured the victory. This result moved the Oilers to 2-4 and dropped the Bengals to 1-5.
But only 17,000 people were in attendance to see the stellar Oilers performance? Why? We’ll find out when discussing the next match.
December 15, 1996, Cincinnati Bengals 21 Houston Oilers 13, Attendance: 15,131
The 21-13 defeat to the Bengals came in Week 16 and was viewed by just over 15,000 people but by then the owners had successfully negotiated their exit, citing the dwindling crowds as the reason why they had to move.
However, their new Nashville home was not ready to accommodate them, so they had a season in Memphis at the Liberty Bell Stadium, where, again, the locals did not take them to their hearts, aggrieved that they were just taking in another city’s team for a season.
