Terrified Broncos Won't Sell Tickets To Fans Outside Rocky Mountain Region
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- How else do you explain a move like this from an NFL franchise other than fear? The Denver Broncos were guaranteed to bring in tens of thousands of fans for the AFC Championship Game against the Patriots on Sunday, but decided to take the home-field advantage a step further by restricting ticket purchases to fans with residences in the Rocky Mountain area.
In other words, the Broncos are terrified of Patriots Nation invading and taking over Mile High.
Tickets for the AFC Championship Game went on sale starting Monday morning, and as the Denver Post reported, sales were available only to fans with billing addresses in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, western Kansas, and Wyoming. (What did poor eastern Kansas do to the Broncos? But that's beside the point.)
This isn't the first time a sports franchise has prevented opposing fans from buying tickets and traveling across the country to take up seats in their stadium. In fact, the Broncos did this to Patriots fans before the last time they played each other in the AFC Championship game in 2014. The Seahawks did the same thing to the San Francisco 49ers that same season.
However, just like the 2014 restriction, it only applies to fans who want to buy tickets through Ticketmaster. There's nothing the Broncos can do about New Englanders snagging seats off of Craigslist, Stubhub, or elsewhere on the secondary market. The move makes sense for Denver and its fans, but still reeks of intense fear.
It's understandable that the Broncos would want Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium to be filled with orange, packed with Denver fans maximizing the noisemaking whenever the Patriots have the ball. But to completely block fans on the east coast from buying tickets shows how worried they are, not just about the game itself, but the loud Patriots fans committing a hostile takeover. The last thing Peyton Manning needs this Sunday is to deal with excessive crowd noise.
Many Patriots fans in the eastern United States, understandably, didn't take the report well.
Even if the Broncos limit the number of Patriots fans filling the seats, the tactic doesn't necessarily work all the time. The San Diego Chargers did the same thing to the Patriots before facing them in the 2006 AFC Divisional round. And, well, you know what happened there.
The Broncos already have the home field and now they'll have most of the fans on their side. They may still have an elite defense and a motivated Peyton Manning playing in perhaps his last chance to make the Super Bowl, but this move shows that they feel they need every advantage they can get.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
