‘Best fans in the world’: Lions set attendance record during breakout season

Allen Park — The Detroit Lions’ season began with screams of “LET’S GO LIONS” so loud that they were picked up by the television broadcast.

By the way, that game took place in Kansas City, which is known for being one of the league’s loudest and most hostile environments. However, Lions fans traveled in such large numbers and volume that they pushed the Chiefs to make a late false start, a monumental effort at one of the league’s most intimidating settings.

It turned out to be simply the beginning of Detroit’s breakout season.

Lions fans invaded road stadiums from coast to coast, and they returned home in historic numbers. Ford Field sold out for the first time ever, with an average of 64,850 fans per game in the regular season, the greatest attendance in the building’s 22-year existence.

Then came the playoffs, and another sold-out crowd let up a 133.6 decibel shout as players sprinted onto the field for Detroit’s first postseason game in 30 years, setting yet another stadium record.

A week later, they shattered the sound barrier again as Jared Goff took three knees to defeat Tampa Bay and advance Detroit to the NFC Championship game. Ford Field became the fourth-loudest building in NFL history, measuring 134.3 decibels.

“Look, I don’t think there’s any debate that we have the best fanbase in the world,” general manager Brad Holmes remarked this week. “Hands down, I don’t care what anyone says about any sport. Look, they made Ford Field difficult this season. They created a challenging playing environment. And even our away games, our road atmospheres, they made it — with all due respect to all of our opponents, but I’ll say this: we couldn’t have asked for anything more from them in terms of travel and sacrifice.”

While Ford Field was shaking like never before, what happened on the road was truly remarkable. A large number of Lions supporters attended a prime-time game at Lambeau Field, prompting the Packers to publish a statement concerning their ticket resale regulations.

A few weeks later, the Saints responded similarly after Lions fans invaded the Superdome.

“We’re used to having a large ,” Saints genumber of Saints fans at some of our away gamesneral manager Mickey Loomis explained. “We’re not used to having so many visiting fans at our games. As you mentioned, the volume in the lower bowl surprised me a bit. This was odd. And yeah, I get it, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

After those back-to-back electric crowds at Ford Field, Detroit traveled across the country to face the top-seeded 49ers in San Francisco — and tens of thousands of Lions fans followed them to Levi’s Stadium, packing into so many planes that Delta added extra flights and swapped in larger aircrafts to accommodate the crush of demand into the Bay Area.