NFL Championship Game question (ticket distribution)

[74_75_78_79_]

Back in the day before the Super Bowl (actually, up through the first four seasons of the SB era), the LCGs went back-and-forth with each division/conference champ taking turns hosting the event.

Was there, perhaps, a set-up that allowed a portion of tickets for fans of the visiting team who were willing to travel to see the game? Or was it first-come-first-served strictly locally being it was such a different time? Could distant-road-fans, maybe, 'call-in' for tickets (I'm going to lean toward 'no')?

Anyone who was around at the time who knew of any group, say Giants-fans, traveling/roughing-it through the MIdwest 'Frozen Tundra' all the way to Lambaeu in '61 (or Packer-fans doing the same to Yankee Stadium the following year)?

Thanks a lot in-advance for such info! Yes, this can also go for AFL and AAFC LCG events as well.


PS - Rams-fans flying out to Cleveland in 1950? And then Browns-fans (who may have been Rams-fans years earlier) flying out to LA the following year?

[RichardBak]

I know when the Lions played the Browns in Cleveland in the 1952 title game, Detroit GM Nick Kerbawy went to Cleveland and brought back a suitcase of tix which the club then offered, at cost, to Lions fans wanting to make the 175-mile journey to Cleveland. I would imagine he also did it for the 1954 title game, also played in Cleveland. Apparently he was able to buy these big blocks because neither game was a sellout. (Cleveland fans were presumably spoiled by years of championships). Of the nearly 51,000 fans at the '52 game, reportedly almost 8,000 were Detroit fans who arrived on chartered buses and four special trains. There may have been just as many Motor City fans at the 1954 game, as only 43,000 tix were sold overall for the game.