Check out what it costs National Football League fans to attend games.

The latest NFL season got under way Thursday night as the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants opened their season with a win (pictured right). For their fans, there were some changes that affected their wallets.

The average ticket price to attend an NFL game rose almost 8 percent to $72.20, according to Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-area sports marketing firm. And if a family of four wants to take in a game played by the Giants, get ready to shell out almost $500 for tickets, beers, hot dogs and other items.

The increases are de rigueur nowadays as the various North American leagues continue to report record attendance and revenues, but cracks may be starting to appear as some fans have begun dialing back spending amid high prices for gasoline and food, and rising unemployment.

As long as the market will bear it, however, fans of the NFL and other professional sports will have to budget for the increases if they want their game-day fix.

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(Photo: Reuters)

Joseph Abboud loves big American guys and to prove it, the apparel maker’s parent, JA Apparel Corp, signed a three-year deal to outfit 31 of the 32 National Football League coaches with its suits and other men’s wear.

The one coach who did not sign on? Hooded sweat-shirt wearing Bill Belichik of the New England Patriots.
 
Under the deal with the NFL Coaches Club, which manages marketing deals for the coaches, privately held Joseph Abboud will provide tailored clothing, dress shirts and ties and dress sportswear for off the field use through 2011. 
“The NFL is the most popular sport now and it’s completely American,” JA Apparel Chief Executive Marty Staff said in a telephone interview. “It all works. All of our competitors are European and this is really a point of departure for us. 

“Also, we love guys who are 35 to 54. We’re not a metrosexual company,” he said, adding he expects the multimillion dollar deal to boost sales and the company’s profile. 

The clothing will not be worn on the sidelines on game day. Staff joked he was glad the apparel will be tailor made at the company’s factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts, as few of the big, burly coaches buy off the rack.
 
The deal came about after San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Nolan successfully petitioned the NFL last year to wear suits on the sidelines for home games to honor his late father, who wore a suit when he coached the 49ers and New Orleans Saints in the 1960s and 1970s. 

In a ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ world, Staff hopes Joseph Abboud in the next several months will sign similar deals in other North American sports leagues. 

(Photos: Reuters)