The Lions are facing off against the Bears on Thanksgiving in a revival of the first Thanksgiving day match up for the Lions.

So why do the Lions play every Thanksgiving Day?  The answer is simple . . .

TO SELL MORE TICKETS!

The tradition started in 1934 when the Lions had a very good team, but couldn't seem to put any butts in the seats.  Even though they only had one loss, they were averaging less than 15,000 people at each game.

The owner, George Richards, needed something to raise attendance and awareness that his new football team in Detroit was actually good!  He proposed a Thanksgiving Day game against the undefeated Bears, who had just won the championship the year before.  So did it work?

YES

The game sold out at 26,000 fans, and many more waiting outside, hoping to get into the game.  The Lions lost the game, but ever since they have played in front of a sold out crowd on Thanksgiving.  Even when they went 0-16, the crowds still respected the tradition.

The Lions came into this season with high hopes, and have looked really good at times. They've also looked like the worst team in football at times this season. Detroit is coming off a win over the Panthers that most fans don't really count as a win so much as a Panthers loss.

Detroit and Chicago played less than 2 weeks ago with the Bears dominating every aspect of the game. The main hope for the Lions is that the Bears will be feeling the effects of playing three games in such a short span of time

One more giblet for that all of us Lions fans can gnaw on is that the Lions are 20% better on Thanksgiving Day. In fact, the Lions have a higher winning percentage in November than any other month. Let's hope this leads to a win, and an unlikely path to the playoffs for the Lions this year.

If you want to grab tickets for the Thanksgiving Day game, the Lions have released a bunch of standing room only tickets. Just know that inflation for the game is definitely on right now. The standing room only tickets are running at about $98 per ticket right now.

One thing the Lions have done well in recent years is booking musical acts for the Thanksgiving Day halftime show. This year it has been announced that Detroit native, Mike Posner will be performing at halftime.

 

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