While Johnny Manziel was partying with Drake, Kyrie Irving and a host of other celebrities last night, the team that drafted him was in the midst of perhaps the largest season-ticket windfall it has ever seen.
In the 12 hours after drafting Manziel, the Browns sold 1,500 season tickets.
Browns president Alec Scheiner told me the team sold more than 1,500 new season tickets in the 1st 12 hours after Johnny was taken
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) May 9, 2014
Things got so busy Thursday night that team even sent out this tweet thanking the employees working in the ticket office:
A major thank you to the folks in our ticket office for working OT, phone lines are ringing off hook" #teamwork
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) May 9, 2014
By Friday afternoon, the ticket figure had reached 2,000. Team president Alec Scheiner was so confident heading into the weekend that he told ESPN's Darren Rovell that each one of the Browns' games in 2014 would be sold out.
The secondary market also experienced an enormous impact:
Page views for #Browns tickets went up 500% during the hour after #JohnnyManziel was drafted.
— StubHub (@StubHub) May 9, 2014
Who had the best 1st round? We’ll let @MelKiperESPN decide that but in terms of ticket sales, Cleveland fans have bought the most today.
— StubHub (@StubHub) May 9, 2014
Despite the team's 4-12 record, the Browns drew respectable crowds throughout the 2013 season. They averaged 71,242 fans for home games, good for 11th in the NFL. To make way for larger video boards, the team is reducing the seating capacity at FirstEnergy Stadium this season to about 68,000.
