MINNEAPOLIS — For the first time since 2017, the Minnesota Vikings will head to London this fall to face the New Orleans Saints at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Oct. 2.
The UK and Ireland Minnesota Vikings Fan Club couldn't possibly be more excited.
"The whole stadium is going to be filled with purple," member Tommy Beauchene said. "It's going to be a great time."
Good luck finding a seat, though, no matter if you live overseas or here in the U.S.
Tickets quickly sold out Wednesday morning for the Vikings-Saints game on Oct. 2 and the Packers-Giants matchup in London a week later on Oct. 9, with some fans reporting on social media that they encountered a queue of nearly 300,000 people — even though they logged on at 9:30 a.m. UK time as the NFL apparently suggested in an email to fans.
"I joined as asked at 9:30 to find 164,500 ahead of me in the queue," one fan wrote. "How is this possible?"
Beauchene described the morning as "complete madness."
Although the UK and Ireland Minnesota Vikings Fan Club was able to secure tickets for many of their members, the prices are high.
"They're selling now for 200 pounds ($240 USD) which is a bit ridiculous," Beauchene said. "As of now, we are continuing to get flooded with emails from members about, 'Hey, we need a ticket.' We are working our best to get as many tickets as possible."
Lena Cordie-Bancroft, a native of Mound and lifelong Vikings fan who moved to the UK in 2020, said she was able to secure a total of eight seats with her husband Richard.
"We have people from Minnesota and Ohio coming over. They already have their flights booked and hotels booked. We had to get the tickets," she said. "We are totally jazzed."
In truth, current prices for the Vikings-Saints game in London on the secondary market are not that much higher than the Vikings' home opener against the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 11 at U.S. Bank Stadium, with cheapest tickets for both games somewhere in the $200 to $250 range.
But the London prices certainly reflect surging interest in American football overseas — particularly for the Packers-Giants game, where the cheapest seats are selling for nearly $400 USD.
"I'm not entirely surprised," said Nick Giammusso, president of ticket website VIPTix. "I just think the demand is so huge."
Plus, a neutral-site game in Europe is much different than a home game in an NFL stadium.
"Normally, a team has 40,000, 50,000 season ticket holders and they only have 20,000 seats to sell," Giammusso said. "With this, it's a little bit different. It's the whole stadium that's opened up, and the demand is greater than normal."
The prices may seem high, but if you're planning a trip to the London game or live overseas, a little patience might pay off.
"Let the market settle down. Things just went on sale today," Giammusso said. "More tickets will become available and you'll see more reasonable prices."
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