NFL season ticket holder guide · Schedule release
One morning a year, every NFL ticket in America reprices at once. The 72 hours after decide your season.
The schedule release converts every variable that matters for ticket demand — date, kickoff window, broadcast slot, holiday proximity — from unknown to known in a single morning. Seven signals decide which of your home games just became gold, and a three-phase playbook decides what you do about it.
This guide ran ahead of the May 13, 2026 release, which has since dropped. The signal rankings and the 72-hour playbook below repeat every release year — the 2026-specific notes are preserved as published.
Wednesday, May 13, around 8 p.m. ET. The 2026 NFL schedule drops. Within 48 hours every game on every season ticket package in America gets re-evaluated, re-listed, and repriced.
That window is the single most consequential pricing event of the NFL year. Most holders sleepwalk through it. The ones who don’t outperform every other strategy on the calendar — not because they price better, but because they make decisions while the buyer attention is at its peak instead of weeks later when it’s gone.
Two weeks. Here’s what’s about to happen and how to use it.
Why the prices move so fast
Before May 13, every game on your home schedule is a hypothetical. You know your team plays the same 16 opponents every season. You don’t know when, you don’t know what time, and you don’t know whether the league assigned the matchup to a Sunday Night, a Monday Night, a Thursday, a Christmas, a Thanksgiving, or buried it at 1 p.m. against five other windows.
The morning of May 13, all of that locks in at once. Date, day of week, kickoff time, broadcast slot, opponent, weather likelihood, holiday proximity — every variable that matters for ticket demand converts from unknown to known in a single morning.
Resale prices reflect it instantly. The average NFL secondary ticket has been trending around $391, up roughly 51% from 2019, but that average masks a wide spread once the schedule decides which games are primetime and which got handed Christmas Day. The first 72 hours after the release is when prices set the floor for the entire season — and the buyers who watch this market are waiting for it.
The seven signals that drive the biggest swings
Some variables matter more than others. Ranked:
Primetime designation
A Sunday Night, Monday Night, or Thursday Night game commands a meaningful premium over the same matchup at 1 p.m. Sunday. Adding a national broadcast spotlight raises the ceiling because casual fans across the country start hunting for tickets to attend. Whichever home games get pulled into one of those windows just got materially more valuable than they would’ve been otherwise.
Holiday games
Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day command the highest single-game premiums on the entire NFL calendar. Detroit and Dallas always host on Thanksgiving. The third Thanksgiving game rotates and is one of the most coveted assignments in the league. The Christmas Day slate, which the league has been expanding, pulls both local family demand and national attention. A holiday assignment alone can be worth more than three regular Sunday afternoon home games combined.
Division rivalry timing
Division games happen twice a year regardless. The timing decides the price. A Week 18 division game with playoff seeding on the line is one of the most valuable tickets of the year. A Week 3 division game is a normal-priced game.
Marquee opponent
Some visitors bring their own demand. Mahomes anywhere. Allen anywhere. The Cowboys traveling is its own market. Eagles fans will book flights to follow their team. The 2026 Draft just gave us new names to track — Mendoza in Vegas, Tate in Tennessee — and rookie-class fascination drives a real bump in opening months for stadiums hosting teams with high-pick rookies.
Opener and finale
The opener is the biggest single date of any team’s home calendar — new jerseys, ring ceremony if applicable, biggest crowd of the year. Even an unsexy opener prices well above season average. The finale is the other peak, partly because it’s the last home date, partly because if there’s any playoff implication it becomes a must-win.
International games
This year’s schedule includes the first NFL game in Rio de Janeiro: Cowboys hosting Ravens at Maracanã, Sunday September 27, 3:25 p.m. ET on CBS. Cowboys season ticket holders lose a Ravens home game. When the schedule drops, look at which opponent took that home slot. If it’s primetime-worthy, it’s an upgrade. If it’s a regular Sunday afternoon body, that home date got materially less valuable than it should have been.
Cold-weather window
For outdoor stadiums in cold cities, late November and December dates carry a weather discount. Buyers know what they’re getting and price it in. Early-season games at the same venues hold premium pricing because the weather is mild and the season is fresh. If your team plays outdoors in the cold, your December inventory needs to move while attention is high and the weather variable is still abstract.
The 72-hour playbook
Three days. Three windows. In order.
Hours 0–6 (morning of May 13)
Pull up your home schedule. Grade every game against the seven signals above. Sort into three buckets: gold (primetime, holiday, marquee opponent, opener, division finale with stakes), standard (regular Sunday 1 p.m., reasonable matchup), and throwaway (early Sunday cold-weather game against a non-contender). You’re not pricing yet. You’re triaging.
Hours 6–24 (rest of release day)
This is when the secondary market is most active. Buyers are watching, listings are flooding in, and the first prices set the anchor for everything that comes after. If you have gold games to move, this is the window — list early, list at a confident price, let the rush of buyers come to your listing rather than discovering it third. Don’t rush standard games. Don’t list throwaway games at all today; nobody’s shopping for them and you’ll just bury them under thousands of marquee listings.
Hours 24–72 (May 14–15)
First wave has hit. Now you’re watching how prices on marquee games are settling. Some hold, some pull back as more inventory comes online. List your standard games into this window — buyers shopping now are doing more careful comparisons. For throwaway games, mark mid-July on your calendar and revisit. Storylines emerge in training camp; that’s when unloved games can find a buyer at a price that doesn’t punish you.
For everything beyond release week — pricing each date, choosing a route, and protecting your renewal — see the full NFL extras playbook.
Rather not work the windows yourself?
Send us your home schedule and seat locations. We grade every date against these signals, list into the right windows, and reprice through the season — you get one Friday deposit per week.
What to do this week, before the schedule drops
Two things, and they’re the difference between using May 13 well and reacting to it.
Know your real per-seat cost.
Take your annual invoice — including PSL fees, parking, food credits — and divide by the number of home games. That’s the floor. You can’t evaluate any price you see on May 14 without it.
Decide your “no” games now.
Look at your fall calendar. Family weddings, work travel, college visits, trips already booked. Those tickets are getting sold either way. Knowing which weekends are committed before the schedule drops means you can move fast on May 13 without simultaneously trying to figure out your personal calendar.
Two weeks from now, the secondary market is going to do what it does every year. The holders who are ready for it move more inventory at better prices than the ones who aren’t. That’s the whole game.
Related reading
The postseason
NFL playoff ticket consignment — Wild Card, Divisional, Conference Championships, and Super Bowl — the natural follow-on pillar once the regular season has played out
Same mechanics, other markets
Round 2 just set: NBA & NHL playoff ticket resale dynamics — same 48-hour-window mechanic applied to playoff series · The three-pattern concert ticket price curve — different price-curve pattern, same secondary-market structure
Send us your NFL tickets
Full season, extras, or the gold games you can’t attend — send the details and we’ll come back within one business day with how we’d work each window.
Send us your NFL tickets →20% standard · Nearly 20 years in the ticket market · 100,000+ tickets sold · Paid every Friday
Published by SellTicketsFast — full-service ticket consignment for season ticket holders, premium event ticket sellers, and corporate inventory. nearly 20 years in the secondary market, 100,000+ tickets sold across 150+ teams.