The selection of Sam Darnold last Thursday night made plenty of sense for the New York Jets, a team desperate for a quarterback. It also might make them plenty of cents too.
Already, the Jets are seeing an uptick in buzz because of the selection of Darnold, a can’t-miss quarterback according to the talking heads of sports radio. The selection of Darnold, No. 3 overall in last week’s NFL Draft, has received barely any criticism from pundits or fans. But the real and truest indicator of the excitement around this pick is coming off the field and away from the headlines.
Darnold, it turns out, is selling tickets and creating demand.
While it is uncertain and way too premature to know if the Jets will start Darnold come Week 1, that doesn’t seem to matter much to the secondary market. According to data obtained from VividSeats.com, prices are up rather significantly for Jets games at MetLife Stadium put on the ticket broker site since the selection of the USC quarterback.
For the Jets opener against the Miami Dolphins, the median price for a ticket before the draft on VividSeats.com was $130, a number that spiked 20 percent to $156 after the selection of Darnold. For the big game against the Green Bay Packers, the median price went from $199 before to $243 just a day after Darnold became a Jet. Home games against the Minnesota Vikings and the New England Patriots rose a similar amount.
“We normally don’t see much immediate movement in our Vivid Seats ticket price data following the NFL Draft,” said Stephen Spiewak, manager of digital content marketing for VividSeats.com. “However, ticket prices for the New York Jets clearly spiked, suggesting sellers are commanding more for tickets than before the Jets picked Sam Darnold.”
Prices for other teams around the NFL, Spiewak said, remained relatively flat after the draft. The Jets, he said, saw the biggest bounce in median price on their site.
For the Jets, this bounce is likely to be seen in season ticket purchases as well as merchandising as they cash in on the Samchise.
