Since the heyday of the wave at the Kingdome in the the 1980s, the the Seahawks home crowd has continued to gain national infamy.
It’s clear to anyone watching on TV or attending Seattle’s NFL games that fans still bring passion to games at Lumen Field, but has the crowd lost a little zip on it’s deep ball?
The number of Buffalo Bills fans — known as the Bills Mafia — who watched their team beat the Seattle Seahawks 31-10 at Lumen Field on Sunday, is unknown. But, it was enough to be visible — and audible.
“Hats off to Buffalo,” said Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, whose team dropped to 4-4 overall and 2-3 at home on Sunday. “They came in, they beat us at home. Their fans travel well. It was real loud in there — it felt like we were on the road at times.”
The vibe was similar toSeattle’s 36-24 home loss to NFC West Division-rival San Francisco on Oct. 10, and has become more common in recent years. Once considered deadly at home, the Seahawks are 15-15 in their last 30 games in Seattle since the start of the 2021 season. Seattle went 47-17 combined at home during the prior eight seasons.
In comparison, Seattle has gone 14-15 on the road since 2021, meaning its road record is one win away from equaling the home record.
There are many factors involved, including strength of the team, quality of opponents at home and perhaps even some luck. Maybe it’s the rising ticket and parking costs that has priced out a few Seahawks fans who arrive at the stadium believing they are a part of the defense — the 12th man.
The team is still selling out every home game at Lumen Field, which has a capacity of 68,740, and there’s a waiting list to be one of the 61,000 season-ticket holders. The once deafening, offensive-sabotaging crowd noise, however, does not seem as consistent as it was a few years ago.
It could be that some season ticket holders sell off a couple of games on external ticket sites in order to offset the overall cost. For example, on one secondary ticket-selling site, the lowest cost a pair of tickets to the Dec. 15 home game against Green Bay was listed at $444 as of Wednesday morning. A cool $7,536 (plus fees) got you in the front row at mid-field. If fans are willing to miss a two of the bigger games each year, they can often pay for a large chunk of the other six regular-season home games.
Whatever the reason, it doesn’t seem to have the same feel as before. TV broadcasters haven’t brought out the decibel meter for a bit.
It just seems a little off.
So, how do the Seahawks get the full home-field advantage back?
There’s no doubting that the Seahawks are deadly at home when they’re rolling. During the height of the Pete Carroll era, Seattle won 34 of 40 (85%) home games from 2012-2016 while going 22 of 40 (55%) on the road. Since then, the home vs. road record difference has been negligible.
For Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, the fix is simple.
“We’ve got to win — period,” said Macdonald, whose team hosts the 3-4 LA Rams on Sunday at 1:25 p.m. at Lumen Field (FOX TV, KIRO Radio). “Opposing fans won’t want to show up if we’re consistently kicking butt and doing what we’re supposed to do. Our fans I think are doing a great job. And they’re sticking with us all the way through the end of the game.”
“We’re fighting, and they’re fighting with us. We have to do a better job of putting a product out there that they want to root really hard for.”
This story originally appeared in seattlesportsnow.com, of which Aaron Coe is a co-founder.
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