NFL London: Fans fume after being met with Ticketmaster queue of 170,00 for NFL tickets despite early queue warning

Fans desperate to get tickets to the NFL London games were greeted with a queue of more than 170,000 people ahead of them on Ticketmaster – despite a warning that there would be no queue until 9:30.

Fans fumed after a queue had developed online, despite a warning that those queuing before 9:30 would be timed out.

It has become one of the key dates for NFL fans in the UK, with many keen to get their hands on briefs for the NY Giants v Green Bay Packers on Sunday, October 9 at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium with Minnesota Vikings taking on the New Orleans Saints a week earlier at the same venue.

Tickets for both games went on sale at 10am today – but many fans hopeful of getting to see Aaron Rodgers and the team play on UK soil for the first time were left fuming after logging on at the start time to see a queue of over 100,00 people.

The NFL sent an email to keen fans saying "You can get in the queue from 9.30am. Please do not join before 9.30am as you may encounter issues when trying to purchase due to the length of time you have been on the site."

Ticketmaster had told fans that once they finally got through they would have 10 minutes to enter the website - and if they didn't they would lose their place in the queue.

However fans were greeted with queues – and tickets once again appearing on second hand sites second after the 10am sale time.

A stock image of an NFL match at Wembley Stadium, London. T Monday March 28, 2022.

Many took to social media to vent their frustration.

One Twitter user wrote: "Ticketmaster: please don’t log on before 09:30 to buy your tickets or you’ll be timed out

“Genuine NFL UK fans: 166,035 before you in the queue at 09:30.”

Another wrote: “How can it be that when you announce that the queue for the NFL London tickets start at 9:30 people got in way before that?”

Fans were greeted with a lengthy queue from 930.

One angry fan added: “UK/EU NFL Fans stay up all kinds of hours of the night to loyally follow teams that are hundreds and even thousands of miles away from us.

“And this is how the NFL repays us...By letting the Scalps get all the tickets for the London game.”

Another added: “Tickets NFL UK says tickets on sale today for two London games at Tottenham at 10:00 and queue will open at 09:30. Log on a few seconds before 09:30 to find 148000 people in the queue already"One fan vented at Ticketmaster writing: “Ticketmaster never fails to shock me. Like every time I think it couldn’t get any worse, each event it somehow manages to get worse. NFL tickets out the window thanks to shambles queuing process and misinformation.”

Another wrote: “The way the @NFLUK tickets have been handled is a joke.”

One surmised writing: “Very disappointed with @NFLUK @NFL and @Ticketmaster. Yet again the resellers win at the expense of real fans”

London is playing host to three NFL games during the 2022-23 season, with October set to be a busy one for UK fans. Spurs' home ground will play host to two of the three games, with the final match taking place at Wembley Stadium.