NFL SETS ALL-TIME PAID ATTENDANCE RECORD
The NFL set an all-time paid attendance record in the 1998 regular season, averaging more than 64,000 fans per game for the first time ever, the league announced today. The average paid attendance was up by more than 1,600 per game. Regular-season attendance in 1998 was 15,364,873 for an average of 64,020, compared to 14,967,314 and 62,364 in 1997.
"We thank all our fans for the great support they have given us this year and every year," said NFL Commissioner PAUL TAGLIABUE. "Our clubs and players are very appreciative of the enthusiastic crowds at NFL stadiums."
The 15,364,873 tickets sold to the NFL’s 240 regular-season games in 1998 represented paid attendance at more than 90 percent of capacity. It is the second time in league history that paid attendance topped the 15 million mark. The 1998 total surpassed the 15,043,562 regular-season paid attendance of 1995, the previous high. The average per game was 62,682 in ’95.
Paid attendance for 1998 increased by 397,559 or nearly three percent over 1997 (14,967,314).
The top five paid attendance marks for a full season have occurred in the past five years.
TOP FIVE NFL REGULAR-SEASON TOTAL ATTENDANCES
| Year | Attendance | Games | Average |
| 1998 | 15,364,873 | 240 | 64,020 |
| 1995 | 15,043,562 | 240 | 62,682 |
| 1997 | 14,967,314 | 240 | 62,364 |
| 1996 | 14,612,417 | 240 | 60,885 |
| 1994 | 14,030,435 | 224 | 62,636 |
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College football also set an all-time attendance record in 1998.
Attendance for the regular-season games of the 595 schools playing NCAA football totaled 37.5 million fans, an increase of nearly two percent from 1997, when 36.9 million fans attended games in Divisions I, I-AA, II and III.
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The three highest-rated television series among men 18-to-49 and 25-to-54 since last September 6 – the day the NFL season kicked off – are NFL games on FOX, ABC and CBS, according to Nielsen ratings figures.
"These numbers represent a major victory for the networks that signed NFL contracts," says ED GOREN, executive vice president of FOX Sports.