Mike Valenti: Real Lions Fans 'Priced Out' Due to Ticket Price Increase

Is Lions' home-field advantage lessening due to ticket price increases?

Detroit Lions fans. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions will face one of the toughest schedules in all of football in 2025.

They're set to play 11 of their 17 games against teams that made the playoffs a season ago. Plus, their slate of games for the upcoming season equates to the second-hardest schedule in the NFL (based on the 0.571 winning percentage of their opponents in 2024).

The Lions have had one of the biggest home-field advantages with their fanbase, but with the ever-increasing ticket prices, some of the team's most passionate fans are now unable to afford tickets.

It's been well-documented that the Lions' ticket prices have gone up over each of the last two seasons, which has led to many of the die-hard fans having to consider giving them up.

Detroit sports talk radio host Mike Valenti explained that this increase has had an adverse affect on the team's success at home. He believes that the Lions' home-field advantage is waning as the increase in ticket prices makes it more difficult for die-hard fans to come to Ford Field.

A prime example Valenti cited was the Divisional Round loss to Washington. With ticket prices in the high three-figures on the re-sale market, it became very difficult for fans to afford the seats they desired.

"They've got a business to run, but I think there is a cost, and I do think that cost is a lot of your most passionate fans getting priced out," Valenti said on “The Valenti Show with Rico”. "You didn't have the real fans for that playoff game. You had some, but most can't afford that seat."

Valenti said that the Lions' ticket price increase has been one of the most aggressive he's seen, and has directly coincided with the team's success. He noted that it is not necessarily a surprising action, but that the nature of doing so makes it difficult for the same fans to enjoy games at Ford Field.

"When teams win, they charge you more money for your tickets," Valenti said. "They have a business to run. It's not illegal, it's not immoral, it's not unethical. Now, how much you increase ticket prices, or how often, then it just becomes an issue of palatability. The Lions have had two of the most aggressive price increases each of the last two seasons."

Bias clouding fans' judgement

Plenty of fans – and even pundits – believe Detroit is going to easily win 13 or 14 games this upcoming season. 

To Valenti, these Lions supporters are living in an alternate universe.

“You have fans who go to social media, who curate these universes for themselves where only the positive is let in, ‘none of the negative,’ and I use air quotes for that. It's a ‘tell me I’m pretty or you're a bad person’ world,” Valenti said Thursday. “You're seeing it with the Lions because you have a euphoria because they've never been good. They are very good right now. But, when you want to have conversations about ‘Okay, now that we're good, here's what it takes to win a Super Bowl,’ fans don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear they might take a step back. They don't want to hear the schedule's difficult because they live in this world.” 

Dan Campbell's squad is coming off a banner campaign, having won a franchise-best 15 games and a second consecutive NFC North division crown. 

The odds certainly aren't in the Lions’ favor to replicate the above season, though. The reason why: Only nine teams in NFL history, including Detroit last year, have won at least 15 games in a season. 

It's a fact the largely “compromised” media won't likely bring up when talking about the Lions’ 2025 schedule, per Valenti.

“It's a sign of the times where you have very little honesty in media. You have a number of people who are openly compromised. I mean, when you're paid by what you cover, you're compromised,” the popular Detroit talk show host expressed. “And we live in a world now where most media, nine out of 10 media, want to be liked. They don't want to do their job. They want to be liked. 

“Well, how do you get people to like you? You say nice things. You tell everybody everything's perfect all the time. And that way, anytime someone says it's not perfect, you just get to outcast them as a hater.”

The Lions are set to kick off their regular season in Green Bay Sunday, Sept. 7. Kickoff for the Week 1 contest is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. (EST).