football Archives - The Franklin Shopper

The popularity of football is undeniable. Football fans anxiously await the return of the sport each fall. The season’s opening kickoff stokes the passion of fans of scholastic, college and professional football, prompting a months-long focus on the sport.

Many fans take their love of football on the road each season. In fact, travel has become such a big component of football fandom that the National Football League has made an event of its annual schedule release each spring. Once schedules are released, it’s not uncommon for fans to begin making plans to travel so they can support their team on the road. Whether fans intend to drive, fly or take another route to the game, they can consider these tips to make the most of their football road trip this season.

Plan Early

The earlier fans begin planning, the more likely they are to get great tickets, budget-friendly travel deals and comfortable lodging. Schedules are typically released many months before the season begins, and fans are urged to begin planning their trips once they can confirm the date of the game they would like to attend.

Consider Sponsored Travel Packages

Individual teams, leagues or private fan clubs may organize travel packages to particular games for interested fans. Such packages can save fans the legwork of planning their own football travel weekend, as they typically include tickets to a game and lodging. Some packages even include bus or airfare and pregame meet-ups with fellow fans at an establishment close to the stadium.

Confirm You Can Get Tickets

Apps and websites like SeatGeek, Stubhub and Ticketmaster ensure it’s possible to get tickets to any game on the schedule in a given season. However, fans should do a little research into ticket prices prior to booking any other components of the trip. Much has been made of consumer demand for live event experiences after restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. For example, the entertainment company Live Nation reported a 32 percent increase in revenue during the third quarter of 2023. That heightened demand has driven up the cost to attend live events in many cities. Fans who want to take their fandom on the road this football season should visit team websites and secondary market sellers to confirm if ticket prices are within their budgets. If so, purchase tickets and then begin planning the rest of the trip.

Don’t Forget To Consider Weather

Though football fans tend to be a hardy breed, weather still merits consideration when planning a football travel weekend. The tail end of a football season can be cold, particularly when traveling to parts of North America where winter typically begins early. If cold weather figures to dampen your travel experience, look for indoor stadiums or follow your favorite team to regions like the southeastern or southwestern United States, where temperatures tend to remain welcoming even as the football season reaches its latter stages.

Traveling on the road with your favorite team is a great way to take your football fandom to the next level. That’s particularly true when fans give ample thought to certain variables prior to booking a trip.

According to Nielsen, 111.3 million people tuned in to watch the Super Bowl in early 2017. Almost two-thirds of adults in the United States say they currently watch National Football League games. But American football is no longer relegated to the boundaries of the United States, as it is becoming a global sport. According to the International Federation of American Football, there are 80 countries with organized federations governing the game. Plus, thousands of youth and adult leagues exist all over the world.

The Evolution of Football

Even though soccer has long been a global sport, it seems the other kind of “football” is quickly catching up. The sport known as American football was borne out of the English sports of association football (soccer) and rugby. During the late 19th century, elite Northeastern colleges took up the sport, playing a soccer-type game with rules adopted from the London Football Association. Intercollegiate matches began to spring up at schools such as Rutgers, Princeton, Harvard, and McGill University. Rugby-type rules became preferential among players and spectators. Walter Camp, known affectionately as the “Father of American Football,” transformed the rugby-style game into the one that resembles American football today. Camp brought two key innovations to the game. The opening “scrummage” was eliminated, and a rule was introduced that required a team to give up the ball after failing to advance down the field a specific yardage. Camp also developed the quarterback position, lines of scrimmage and the scoring scale used in football today.

The Injury Controversy

Early games were controversial because of the high rate of injury. Even President Theodore Roosevelt stepped in to ask collegiate teams to revise regulations to make the game less brutal. The committee overseeing the rules would later become known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Thanks largely in part to the popularity of college football, professional football began to gain traction with the public. The American Professional Football Association was formed in 1920. That league would later become the National Football League. The first televised NFL game occurred in 1939. Eventually, American football’s popularity would explode.

Sis Boom Rah!

Cheerleaders were introduced to the game in the 1960s. Currently, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are the most famous squad. Six teams in the NFL do not have cheerleaders: the Chicago Bears, the Cleveland Browns, the Detroit Lions, the New York Giants, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Green Bay Packers. Football games typically last around 3 hours. Average attendance for an NFL game is 66,957 spectators. American football has become a multibillion-dollar industry. What developed on college campuses has grown into a worldwide phenomenon.