99.5% of Denver Broncos’ season ticket holders have renewed, leaving over 100,000 on the waiting list
May 1, 2026, 4:24 PM
If you’re one of the 107,000 people on the Denver Broncos’ season ticket wait list, the math just got even more discouraging.
The Broncos announced Thursday that 99.5% of current season ticket holders renewed for the 2026 season — an all-time franchise record — despite a 9% price increase, the fourth consecutive year of hikes.
The number means virtually no existing inventory will turn over for the tens of thousands of fans waiting in line. Empower Field at Mile High seats roughly 76,125 for football. A 99.5% renewal rate means fewer than 400 season ticket accounts — potentially representing only a few hundred individual seats — became available for reassignment. With a wait list that stood at 107,000 as of February, according to Jesse Nading, the team’s senior vice president of strategy and business intelligence, the odds of a new fan getting in are roughly 1 in 270.
And that assumes every relinquished seat goes to the wait list rather than being reallocated internally or bundled into premium packages.
The record renewal caps a steady climb. Since 2016, the Broncos have averaged a 97.7% renewal rate. That figure hit 98% for the 2025 season and surged to 99.5% this year, fueled by a team that went 14-3 in 2025, earned the AFC’s No. 1 seed and hosted the AFC Championship Game for the first time since the 2015 season.
The demand has held firm even as costs have risen sharply. Season ticket prices have increased 13% (2023), 7.9% (2024), 8% (2025) and now 9% (2026) — a cumulative jump of roughly 43% in four years. The team noted that almost half of general admission season tickets are still priced under $150 per seat per game, though premium options like Field Level Prime seats run $3,350 per seat for the season.
The team’s 2026 home schedule has not yet been released. The full NFL schedule is expected later this month.
