The defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers fell out of the #1 slot in the FanSnap FanDemand^sm rankings this week as they travel to Chicago to take on the Bears. The Bears now sit atop the FanDemand rankings. The Steelers maintain a strong #2 position, which means both Steelers fans and Bears fans will be vying for the hottest ticket in the NFL — seats at Soldier Field on Sunday. (see the complete rankings below)

The Cowboys and Patriots remain in the top five. The Giants moved up from #7 to #4. The Eagles fell from #2 to #6.

The Eagles were at Carolina last week, and have the red-hot Saints at home on Sunday, but will likely be without Donavan McNabb who fractured ribs in the Panther game.

The Giants visit the new Cowboys Stadium for the first time on Sunday for what has become a heated rivalry game with the Cowboys. Both teams are coming off season-opening wins. Fans of both teams have high expectations this season.

The Patriots slipped a slot in the rankings this week possibly due to the trouble the team had with the Bills in week 1 – even with QB Tom Brady back under center. The Pats travel to East Rutherford to take on the Jets.

The Bengals (up from #23 last week to #7 this week) travel to Green Bay to take on the #8 Packers.

The Monday night game features the #18 Dolphins at #17 Colts.

FanSnap Ticket results include more than 12 million sports, theater and concert ticket listings to 30,000 plus events.  The FanSnap FanDemand rankings are proprietary and include ticket searches as well as average price for the tickets searched.

Week 1 FanSnap FanDemand rankings are here.

The defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers are the hottest team in the NFL, based on fan searches and average ticket price for week 1 of the 2009 – 2010 season.

Supporting Pennsylvania’s longtime claim as the nation’s gridiron hotbed, the Philadelphia Eagles rank second on FanSnap’s week 1 FanDemand^sm list. Rounding out the top five teams with the most obsessed fans are the Chicago Bears, New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys.

The FanSnap FanDemand rankings are proprietary and include ticket searches as well as average price for the tickets searched.

A few weeks ago, the scheduled matchup that pitted the Eagles against the Falcons in December was interesting. It was one of the highest demand Falcon tickets. Since the Eagles signed Michael Vick, however, the demand for a ticket in Atlanta to witness Vick’s return has exploded. The average price of a ticket to the Eagles - Falcons game is up nearly $150 to $275 each.

With a storied divisional rivalry like the Vikings - Packers, a soon-to-be Hall of Fame QB in Favre, the Vikings talent and the pride the Packers (a talented team with high expectations), tickets to the Vikings - Packers promise to be some of the toughest tickets in the NFL to score.

Tickets to the two meetings of Vikings and Packers are on par with other big NFL rivalries. Expect demand for these two games to jump significantly as the the ink dries on Brett Favre’s contract and fans see him dressed in Vikings purple.

Maybe the Dallas Cowboys still are America’s team!  Football fans, already searching for and purchasing NFL tickets, have spoken loud and clear since the league announced its schedule in April.  Season ticketholders, even though they may not have their tickets in hand yet from the teams, often know their seats, and as usual are listing their extra tickets already for future delivery.

Drum line please!  Who are by far the most popular teams, based on the number of searches on FanSnap?

1.  Dallas Cowboys tickets

2.  New York Giants tickets

3.  Pittsburgh Steelers tickets

4.  Chicago Bears tickets

5.  New England Patriots tickets

Patriots fans, invigorated by the return of Tom Brady, narrowly edged out the fans searching for New York Jets tickets in their new stadium (which they of course share with the Giants).

Checking out the first regular season home games of these popular teams, it looks like there are lots of ticket listings for these excited fans to choose from, although the market prices vary widely:

Sep 10 Titans @ Steelers 3,900+ tickets, starting at $147*

Sep 13  Redskins @ Giants 3,600+ tickets, starting at $150

Sep 14 Bills @ Patriots 2,500+ tickets, starting at $97

Sep 20 Steelers @ Bears 3,500+ tickets, starting at $200

Sep 20 Giants @ Cowboys 16,000+ tickets, starting at $65

* price shown equals ticket + commission per ticket; as of June 2, 2:30pm

Blue Twenty-Two.  Hike!

Mike

OK, what most real NFL fans consider to be the “pre-season” has ended and now things count. It’s the playoffs.  Not only the usual “one and done” excitement but also lots of great story lines. Can the Giants repeat?  The amazing turnaround of the Dolphins from 1-15 last year to division winners this year.  The Cardinals in their first playoffs since their move to Arizona. The Chargers’ late surge. The post-Michael Vick Falcons.

Here at FanSnap, we have integrated systems with dozens of ticket sites, so we can check constantly for available NFL playoff tickets. In some cases as many as ten or more sites have tickets for a given game.  Nothing is better for fans than choice!  We check 50+ ticket sites so you don’t have to.  A daily snapshot of our ticket search results from the last several days shows how dynamic the available tickets can be and, how the price of the “cheap tickets” can vary from game to game.

You can see that available tickets for this weekend’s wild card games are generally declining, but many are still available.  Ticket choices for next week’s divisional playoffs are actually still increasing!  With all those tickets to choose from, surely we can help you find yours.  Of course, with all this buying and selling going on, if you have not yet found your perfect tickets, check back often!  Happy New Year!

Mike