Here's what happened to NFL ticket sales after protests

According to one metric of ticket sales, the NFL is taking a beating, and some say it's because of the protests during the national anthem. 

How much are ticket sales dropping?

TickPick, a seat ticket reseller, says that they're seeing a drop in ticket sales of 17.9 percent. While there is a normal seasonal drop from week to week, last year it was only 10.8 percent. The drop this year is their steepest since 2014.

Another ticket reseller, TicketCity, says sales have plummeted by 31 percent.

What does TickPick attribute the drop to?

The online ticket reseller released a statement about the drop in ticket sales to Townhall. 

"While we can’t specify if this decrease is due to the President’s comments," it read, "player and owner protests, play on the field, or simply the continued division of consumer’s media attention; the conversation around the NFL, this week, has focused on the President’s comments as well as the players’ and owners’ reaction."

"As viewers continue to change their NFL Sunday habits," they concluded, "it is possible that the number of ticket sales and the purchase price of tickets may drop.”

What's happening to the NFL's ratings?

Some are dropping, like the Thursday Night Football game opener which was down 13% in the ratings as compared to last year. But other ratings are up, and overall, the NFL is hitting a ratings average of 3% above last year so far.

Are the protests hurting the NFL?

It's hard to say - some news outlets are cherry picking data in order to satisfy their readers' political tendencies, but it's really too early to conclude definitively.