NFL fans in UK cite ticket prices and 'team fatigue' for unsold seats as London hosts 3 games

LONDON (AP) — Matt Cullen’s streak of attending NFL games in London is nearing an end.

The Englishman’s run started at London’s first regular-season game in 2007, when he shrugged off steady rain to watch the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium.

But Cullen can’t bring himself to look past ticket prices and some “team fatigue.” He’s not the only one on the sidelines as London, a key international location for the NFL, gets set to host three games in October.

Most tickets historically get snapped up quickly — as they did for the Week 5 game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But the Jags vs. Houston Texans matchup at Wembley Stadium still had swaths of unsold seats over the weekend, and some tickets were still available for the Indianapolis Colts vs. Washington Commanders game Oct. 4 at Tottenham two months after going on sale to the public.

“It will just be really, really interesting what the future of the London games looks like because they’re not selling to the potential anymore that they used to,” Cullen said. “It’s a little bit around team fatigue ... a lot of it’s around cost.”

The Jags-Texans (Week 6) is a Jacksonville-run game, meaning the Jags manage operations and ticketing themselves as they have done since 2022. The NFL runs the two Tottenham games.

The NFL is playing a record nine international games this season. The Australian city of Melbourne hosts for the first time when the Los Angeles Rams face the San Francisco 49ers in their season opener Friday morning Melbourne time (Thursday night in the U.S.).

The slate includes a game in Germany, Spain and France — giving fans more European choices and possibly impacting London demand.

Dori Dunai, a London-based Green Bay Packers fan, is on an NFL UK mailing list and said she has been receiving weekly emails about available Colts-Commanders tickets.

“All other years tickets were gone on the day of sale and heard nothing more of tickets,” Dunai said.

Ticket-price anger — evident even in comments on the NFL U.K.’s social media posts — gained steam last year.

After scrapping its “season tickets” program, which allowed fans to buy tickets for each year's NFL-run London games at once, the NFL added two new ticket categories and sharply increased some prices. One former season ticket-holder, journalist Thomas Willoughby, described a price increase of nearly 48% from 2024 to '25.

The league priced this year’s Tottenham games individually. The Philadelphia-Jacksonville game is the more expensive of the two, and its brisk sales seemingly point to the popularity of the Eagles.

Children's discounts aside, the cheapest ticket for both Tottenham games is 79 pounds ($106). From there, the Eagles-Jags game is more expensive, topping out at 280 pounds ($378) while the highest price for Colts-Commanders is 245 pounds ($331) in standard seating. Those prices include fees.

Compared to the 2025 games at Tottenham, the categories for the Colts-Commanders game reflect slightly lower prices, though seats can also be moved into higher-priced categories.

Wembley adult prices for Jags-Texans start at 70 pounds ($95) and rise to 297 pounds ($402) — all before fees.

Cullen’s seat at Wembley for a 2016 game — when he was a season-ticket holder — cost 66 pounds ($89). This year's price chart shows the same seat at 146 pounds ($197) for Jags-Texans on Oct. 18, also excluding fees.

He's managed to attend at least one London game — none were played in 2020 — each season including last year. But barring a below-face-value offer, Cullen's streak will end: “It's priced me out."

From a market viewpoint, because the available Eagles-Jags tickets sold out, “it does suggest that they’ve got the pricing right for that fixture,” said Jonathan Fry, a lecturer in business and management at Aberystwyth University in Wales who has researched event ticketing. But if the other games feature less popular teams, he added, “they could look at reviewing the pricing.”

Indeed, there appears to have been re-categorization of some tickets.

Dunai, who posts on Instagram about American football, said on the day Tottenham tickets went on public sale — July 7 — that she was “shocked” at the prices. Her video highlighted a seat for the Colts-Commanders listed at 185 pounds ($249). The same adult-priced seat in late August was available for 115 pounds ($155).

The Jaguars have a taller task when it comes to ticket sales because Wembley is much bigger than Tottenham.

The Jaguars gave early access to some groups, including its local Union Jax fan club, “historic Wembley purchasers” and opposition season-ticket holders — before tickets went on sale to the general public May 29.

Is the London lineup getting dull for neutral fans with so many Jaguars games?

“Give us six new teams each year from next season, that’s the biggest change I want," Dunai said in an interview.

Including their two October games, the Jags will have played in London nine times since 2021. They played an annual game at Wembley from 2013-19 and have built a fan base.

But despite their longevity, U.K. viewing and popularity indicators are not in their favor.

The Jags ranked No. 28 for most-watched teams on NFL Game Pass in Britain and Ireland in 2025. Their Oct. 18 opponent, Houston, was two spots lower.

Jacksonville was also among the lesser-searched NFL teams by U.K. fans in 2025, according to analytics company Hyperset Group, based on Google search data.

It’s not just the Jaguars, said Cullen, a New York Jets fan. His team played in London in 2024 and 2025 and “no one wants to see the Jets.”

Ultimately, the stadiums fill up. Tottenham’s capacity for Premier League games is 62,850 but lower for NFL games, which regularly surpass 61,000 fans.

Attendance at three of the past four Jaguars games at Wembley exceeded 86,000.

The Jags will play most of their home games in 2027 in Orlando — with up to three international games possible — while work wraps up on their $1.4 billion stadium renovation.

Team President Mark Lamping confirmed earlier this year that the team now does rolling one-year renewals with Wembley — rather than the multiyear commitments of the past — adding that’s how the NFL prefers it.

The small-market Jaguars at one point earned about 11% of their local revenue by playing in London, but Lamping said it’s “nowhere near that high anymore" and that "the economic motivation will change even more once we move into the new stadium."

At training camp, Lamping told the team’s flagship radio broadcaster: ”We’re going to totally reevaluate our London strategy.”

Both the Jaguars and the NFL declined interview requests. In a statement, the NFL said the U.K. “remains one of the league’s most important international markets.

“Interest in NFL games continues to be strong. Each year, hundreds of thousands of fans register for ticket information and opportunities to attend our games, and London remains one of the premier destinations for NFL fans outside the United States," it said.

The league added it is “incredibly grateful for the passion and loyalty" of U.K. fans.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

FILE - Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Davante Adams (17) is challenged by Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) during the second half of an NFL football game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE - New York Jets fans cheer during the first half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 12, 2025, in London. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE - Fans sing during an NFL football game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Chicago Bears at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Oct. 13, 2024, in London. (AP Photo/Steve Luciano, File)

FILE - The Union Jack and United States flags are presented on the field during the singing of the national anthem before an NFL football game between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Oct. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Steve Luciano, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that U.S. envoys who visited Kyiv presented some “very good, worthwhile ideas” for ending Russia's 4 1/2-year-old war, adding that he hopes to meet with President Donald Trump within two weeks.

But Russia remains determined to accomplish its military goals and it believes it is close to winning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Ukrainian and Western observers believe that Moscow has been unable to make any significant progress on the front line.

The war could yet drag on for years as Russia reconstitutes its forces and its defense industry, said U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby.

“We must be prepared for a protracted conflict and for Ukraine’s requirements to persist in the months and years ahead,” Colby told an online meeting of countries helping Ukraine.

U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv for separate talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy over the weekend. The meetings appeared to produce no substantial breakthrough on ending the fighting, and both countries resumed their deadly air war after a weekend truce in their capitals for the American visitors.

The attacks killed at least five civilians and wounded 25 others in Kyiv, officials said, while officials from Russia reported three people killed and 13 wounded in areas it controls.

Zelenskyy said he is counting on meeting with Trump around Sept. 20 — about the same time that the U.N. General Assembly is being held in New York.

He indicated he will press Trump to provide more Patriot air defense systems that Kyiv needs to counter Russia's ballistic missiles.

Ukraine needs 300 Patriot missiles from its partners’ stocks, 500 air-to-air interceptors and $2 billion for more drones, U.K. Defense Secretary Wes Streeting told the meeting of countries providing help.

Also on Tuesday, the European Commission approved a loan of 3.2 billion euros ($3.7 billion) for Kyiv to purchase components for Patriot air defense systems, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel.

Zelenskyy thanked U.S. officials for their efforts to unblock negotiations with Russia, which have been stuck since early this year with little progress.

“As for the peace package that Kushner spoke about and the new ideas, I’ll tell you frankly, there were indeed a couple of very good, worthwhile ideas,” Zelenskyy said in audio messages answering reporters' questions.

The proposals will remain under wraps for now, he said, but he expressed hope that talks involving delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. can take place in the fall.

Ukraine is “ready to find a compromise” on the issues of grain exports and energy, he said. Moscow and Kyiv have targeted each other’s grain ships in the Black Sea, raising concerns that two of the world's major suppliers won't be able to get their produce to market.

Ukraine has also battered Russian oil facilities while Russia has pounded Ukraine's power grid ahead of winter.

A Moscow official said he believed “victory is very close” on the battlefield.

"We’re very confident in our military potential,” Peskov told reporters, while insisting Russia wants to find a peaceful solution and welcomes Trump's diplomatic efforts.

Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength. But European officials and Western analysts say its bigger army is unable to make significant progress on the 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line, where it is pushing to capture the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, part of its industrial heartland.

“Russian forces will not seize Donetsk ... until 2032 at their current rate of advance — if they can seize it at all,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Sunday. “The Russian rate of advance has slowed significantly across the theater since 2025, when Russia’s rate of advance had already begun to slow.”

With troops bogged down on the battlefield, both countries have intensified their aerial campaign of drones and missiles.

Russia’s main targets in its overnight attack were Kyiv and the Odesa region of southern Ukraine. At least 25 people were wounded in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said. There was no immediate tally of casualties in Odesa.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv for nearly five hours, according to Vyhivskyi. More than 50 sites were damaged in Kyiv during the overnight attack, including residential buildings, dormitories, schools, shops, gas stations and a flour production plant, he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it “a horrific attack” and accused Putin of undermining U.S. peace efforts.

“His ballistic missiles speak louder than his words on diplomacy,” Sybiha said on X, referring to Putin. “Strike after strike on residential buildings brings him no closer to winning this war — it is nothing but senseless terror.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces overnight launched a massive strike on Ukrainian military industry facilities.

It provided a detailed list of its targets. They included places storing Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles, as well as transport, logistics and distribution centers for military cargo in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, the ministry said.

Infrastructure in the port of Chornomorsk in the Odesa region used for “unloading military cargo” was also struck.

Associated Press journalists Vasilisa Stepanenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

A rescue worker puts out a fire of a building destroyed after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Smoke rises following a Russian missiles attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A man walks along an underpass as smoke rises following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)