{"id":715558,"date":"2026-01-30T03:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/715558\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T03:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:36:14","slug":"lions-2025-26-annual-home-attendance-ranking-is-misleading-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/715558\/","title":{"rendered":"Lions\u2019 2025-26 annual home attendance ranking is misleading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 29, 2026, 7:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/years\/2025\/attendance.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Pro Football Reference<\/a> revealed that Detroit ranked No. 27 in the NFL in 2025-26 regular-season home attendance among the 32 franchises, <a href=\"\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Lions<\/a> fans are noting that the league left out a critical metric that would make Detroit&#8217;s figures much more respectable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">According to the rankings released on Jan. 28, the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/detroit-lions\/334\" data-autotag=\"a9d615a6-a025-4346-9c29-28956ed45852\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Lions<\/a>&#8216; attendance for their eight home games this past season totaled 516,719. That number places Detroit ahead of only <a href=\"https:\/\/commanderswire.usatoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Washington<\/a> (514,362), <a href=\"https:\/\/bucswire.usatoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Tampa Bay<\/a> (509,124), <a href=\"https:\/\/cardswire.usatoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Arizona<\/a> (508,197), <a href=\"https:\/\/theeagleswire.usatoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Philadelphia<\/a> (489,153), and <a href=\"https:\/\/bearswire.usatoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Chicago<\/a> (465,014).<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While those metrics are valid when measuring by the sheer total number of fans, the Lions&#8217; (and many others&#8217;) attendance figures would be far more commendable if the league considered how each franchise&#8217;s home stadium capacity impacts those numbers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ford Field&#8217;s standard capacity for NFL regular-season games is 65,000, making it the 28th-largest of the league&#8217;s 30 active stadiums. Therefore, the Lions&#8217; average home-game attendance (roughly 64,590) is just below a sellout when compared to Ford Field&#8217;s capacity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Compared to other teams in the NFL, the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tallguyStepek\/status\/2016595036507357623?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Lions&#8217; attendance percentage of maximum capacity<\/a> was 99.37%, which would have ranked 13th in the league.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:6|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">For more\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/detroit-lions\/334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/thelionswire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lionswire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Scout on X:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SpringgateNews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">@SpringgateNews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 29, 2026, 7:00 p.m. ET After Pro Football Reference revealed that Detroit ranked No. 27 in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[95878,146,113,2506,7,147,5264,6,52959,96502,95882,96512,96242,95893,101340,103257,95896,95888,95895,95899,96071,95902,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":["post-715558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-lions","tag-accessfree","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions","tag-detroitlions","tag-football","tag-lions","tag-mi","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnfllions","tag-sstsnlions","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagdetroit","tag-tagdetroit-lions","tag-tagfacebook","tag-tagford-field","tag-tagmichigan","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtwitter","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115981961516444914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}