Buffalo Bills’ Attendance Numbers Slightly Declined in 2016
By Ryan Brennan
The Buffalo Bills are known for having one of the most loyal fanbases in all of sports, despite their 2016 attendance seeing a drop in numbers.
Buffalo Bills‘ fans are known as some of the most loyal fans in all of sports. With all we have had to go through as a fanbase, seeing how packed of a house the Bills have every weekend is quite admiring.
It goes to show that this organization is more than just a football team — it’s almost treated as a religion. The effect this team has on its fans can’t be compared to any other team in this league and the love we have for the Buffalo Bills can never be taken away from us.
Not even by Donald Trump or Jon Bon Jovi.
With that being said, the attendance numbers at New Era Field did see a dip this season, although it wasn’t a big one. In their eight home games this season, the Buffalo Bills saw 548,073 fans support their team on game day. That number ranked 16th in the league.
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The average attendance per home game was 68,509 fans, which ranked 17th in the league. With a capacity of 73,079 fans, the most Buffalo could have seen this season was 572,864 fans.
Considering the state of the team, the number of people that did travel to New Era Field this season is quite surprising.
Looking at last season’s attendance records, the team was able to bring in 559,047 fans — an average of 69,880 fans per home game. They ranked 14th in 2015. So, the attendance in 2016 did see a slight decline, but that’s neither here nor there.
There could be a lot of reasons as to why we saw this small dip in attendance. For starters, the 17-year playoff drought is probably one of the biggest, along with the frustrating antics by the coaching staff and the players.
When you look at the fact that Buffalo finished just 7-9, you would expect the numbers to be even worse, right?
Thanks to Kim Pegula and all of the work behind the scenes, the Buffalo Bills continue to find new ways of brightening the experience of coming to a Bills’ game. Looking at the numbers, it’s nice to know that we sold more tickets than the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders.
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Here’s a full list of how the rest of the NFL turned out in attendance, ranked from the top to bottom:
1. Dallas Cowboys – 740, 318
2. New York Giants – 630,315
3. Washington Redskins – 626,432
4. Green Bay Packers – 625,727
5. New York Jets – 625,280
6. Denver Broncos – 614,193
7. Carolina Panthers – 590,343
8. Kansas City Chiefs – 586,624
9. New Orleans Saints – 584,876
10. Houston Texans – 574,947
11. Baltimore Ravens – 568,823
12. San Francisco 49ers – 561,424
13. Atlanta Falcons – 559,998
14. Philadelphia Eagles – 556,768
15. Seattle Seahawks – 552,588
16. Buffalo Bills – 548,073
17. New England Patriots – 534,632
18. Minnesota Vikings – 534,289
19. Indianapolis Colts – 524,393
20. Miami Dolphins – 524,101
21. Arizona Cardinals – 518,652
22. Tennessee Titans – 517,273
23. Pittsburgh Steelers – 514,503
24. Cleveland Browns – 514,489
25. Detroit Lions – 486,342
26. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 484,998
27. Chicago Bears – 482,951
28. San Diego Chargers – 456,197
29. Jacksonville Jaguars – 433,408 (7 games)
30. Cincinnati Bengals – 423,583 (7 games)
31. Oakland Raiders – 382,088 (7 games)
32. Los Angeles Rams – 74,121 (one game)
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