Insider: Rod Wood Is 'Tone Deaf' Stating Lack of Ticket Complaints

Detroit Lions season ticket prices are substantially on the rise for a second straight season headed into 2025.

The organization increased ticket prices an average of 24 percent for the upcoming season, after raising them by 30 percent last season.

Despite that being the case, Lions team president Rod Wood told reporters at the Annual League Meetings that renewals remain at 98 percent and there are north of 20,000 people on the season ticket waiting list.

“Unlike prior years, I never got a single complaint this year about anybody's ticket price going up," Wood expressed. “We did get some complaints from some people who we identified as really being brokers. They were buying season tickets and then selling every game and making thousands of dollars.

“And so under the contract, we have the right to take those tickets back. And so the biggest complaints I got were the people who had their tickets taken away from them because they now can't resell them and make money.”

On the latest "Gritiron Gang" podcast, Detroit News Lions reporter Nolan Bianchi conveyed he was quite surprised with how Wood addressed the matter, one that has frustrated a multitude of Lions supporters.

"I do not think it's a very good thing to say that you didn't get a single complaint about the ticket prices going up. I think it's a like a little bit tone deaf to the reality of the situation that was happening. Like point blank, we all wrote stories about it," Bianchi said. "Outside of the resale thing, like a lot of people don't care about that. A lot of people don't sell most of their tickets. A lot of people are now being forced to sell some of their tickets, because they can't afford them.

"Now it's kind of like a chicken or the egg situation -- if you sell too many, though, you can get them taken away, even though you still want to have the season tickets and go to games. I think it's an unfortunate situation. We talked about it at length. You hate to see real fans get priced out of their season tickets, especially the ones who have been season ticket holders for decades. And, I just, I thought that was the wrong thing to say."

According to Wood, the average ticket price on the secondary market in 2024 was $404 – the highest price in the league by a wide margin. Consequently, you will continue to see Lions fans sell their tickets on the resale market.

Still, Bianchi doesn’t believe it gave Wood the right to make the comments that he did about the team’s season ticket holders.

"Given how I think every single year they do this, it's probably going to come up. I thought he could have had a better response to that," said Bianchi. "I kind of almost couldn't believe that he said that."

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