With the 2024 NFL schedule now live, the big news for fans everywhere quickly turns from who their favorite NFL teams are playing to how they can attend those specific games.
There are plenty of ways to buy tickets for the 2024 season, but there is a quick window for fans to begin their march to show up for their favorite teams and players.
When Can You Buy Tickets for the 2024 NFL Season?
According to Ticketmaster on the official league’s website, tickets are available as soon as the NFL schedule has been announced.
You can browse a wide selection of NFL tickets at Ticketmaster, the official ticketing partner of the NFL. Or, you can use TicketNetwork to purchase any of the games you might be interested in.
Additional tickets may become available closer to the game, so keep checking back.
When Is the First Game of the NFL Season?
The NFL announced the first game of the NFL season will be between the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs and the Ravens on Thursday, Sept. 5, starting at 8:00 pm ET.
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The game will be broadcast as always on NBC as part of their “Football Night in America” broadcast as the league’s first game of the new season.
How Is the NFL Schedule Made?
As reported by the NFL’s Football Operations team, the schedule is made by multiple people: Vice President of Broadcasting Michael North, Senior Vice President of Broadcasting Howard Katz, Senior Director of Broadcasting Blake Jones, Director of Broadcasting Charlotte Carey, Vice President of Broadcasting Onnie Bose, and Broadcasting Senior Coordinator Lucy Popko.
This team, according to the league website, “must consider the fans, the league’s broadcast partners, and many other factors when building the 272-game schedule that spans the 18 weeks of the NFL season and showcases the league’s best matchups and talent.”
As part of the schedule makeup, the personnel are also handicapped knowing that the league has a rotating schedule every three years so teams will face off against each other once in that period. With six divisional games and that rotating schedule, the formula that bases each team’s schedule of opponents is done before the broadcast team comes together.
After computers go through thousands of potential schedules, the personnel agree on the best possible schedule overall to be distributed to fans, teams, and broadcast partners alike.
How Long Is the NFL Season?
The NFL regular season starts in the first week of September and goes all the way through until Super Bowl 59 on Feb. 9, 2024. The regular season consists of 18 weeks, 17 games for each franchise, and then a three-round playoff format leading into the Super Bowl.
While the casual fans may believe the season begins on Sept. 5 this season, training camp and the preseason will kick off to start the month of August. Preseason games are a time when fans can watch some of the bottom-of-the-roster players make a name for themselves and carve out a role on an NFL team.
In reality, of course, with OTAs beginning next week and mandatory minicamps sprinkled in through June and July, the NFL calendar is basically all 12 months of the year.
