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Seattle Seahawks
Overall: 5
Title track: 6
Ownership: 10
Coaching: T6
Players: 7
Fan relations: 20
Affordability: 94
Stadium experience: 22
Bang for the buck: 2
Change from last year: -2
Back-to-back Super Bowl appearances and the Seahawks still fell two spots in our standings. But despite that infamous second-and-goal call in the Super Bowl, Seattle remains the NFL's top franchise largely because ownership has invested in winning by retaining a core group of players and a coach who knows how to win -- and handle egos. Yet some Seahawks fans seem to be facing an internal conflict: Have the results come at too high a cost?
What's good
With Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Jimmy Graham and Bobby Wagner all signed through 2017, the Seahawks rank seventh in the players category and sixth in title track. In fact, fans gave Seattle's players the highest score in the NFL when asked if they always give their best effort. Meanwhile, general manager John Schneider (No. 10 in ownership) and Carroll (No. 6 in coaching, tied with the Cardinals for highest in the league) receive plenty of credit for three straight 11-win seasons and playoff berths in four of the past five years. Even though Carroll spent a lot of years at the college level and is the NFL's second-oldest coach, he hasn't lost his edge, building a defensive-minded unit that has successfully blended different personalities on both sides of the ball. And while it can be costly to support a Super Bowl contender, fans believe they've gotten their money's worth: Seattle ranks second in bang for the buck behind only the Anaheim Ducks. The Seahawks have had 109 consecutive home sellouts and a season-ticket renewal rate of 99.6 percent.
What's bad
The only category in which the Seahawks rank lower than 22nd is affordability, coming in at 94th, 25 spots below last year. Perhaps fans are getting a bit greedy, considering the average cost for a game at CenturyLink Field in 2014 was $118.69, just 2 bucks above the NFL average. Of course, that is an 8.6 percent increase from 2013, but, hey -- Super Bowls can be expensive! Stadium experience did fall from 13th to 22nd, and fan relations dropped from 11th to 20th. Fans pay up in at least one area: Parking is 50 bucks, nearly $20 above league average.
What's new
In most categories, the Seahawks rank close to where they were last year, and that speaks to the organization's stability even if fans feel like a Seattle football game is overpriced. In the end, the average ticket to a home game was $80.77, nearly $4 below league average. According to our survey, fans gave the Seahawks decidedly mediocre scores when asked if their team had affordable tickets, parking and concession prices. Yet the only categories priced above the NFL average in 2014 were beer ($8 for a 16-ounce beer; league average $7.45) and parking.
Next: Green Bay Packers | Full rankings