Secondary market ticket prices for marquee events on websites like StubHub are always jacked up, but the cost to go to a Chicago Cubs home game during the World Series is out of control.
Official ticket prices for World Series games between the Cubs and Cleveland Indians at Wrigley Field range from US$85 to $565. Not bad considering the stakes. The cheapest tickets available on StubHub (as of noon ET) for Friday’s Game 3, however, were listed at $1,699 per ticket. Oh, and that’s for standing room only by the way.
The Cubs, a franchise boasting one of the most passionate fan bases in North American pro sports, haven’t appeared in a World Series since 1945. Upper grandstand tickets for that 1945 series cost $6. As of late Thursday, the median prices for tickets on the secondary market were $3,000 for Game 3, $3,700 for Game 4 and $3,550 for Game 5, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The most expensive tickets listed were listed at an absurdly unrealistic $996,969.70 each, while hundreds of other tickets were available in the $2,000-$10,000 range.
Sure, you might have to mortgage your house to get decent seats but at least you’ll get a bargain on gum.
The current record for most expensive median price on the secondary market for an event/game is $3,894 for Super Bowl 50. Tickets for boxing’s 2015 superfight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao had a median price of $3,700.
It will be extremely difficult for fans in Chicago to get into the game due to the astronomical prices, plus the fact anyone with tickets are reluctant to sell them, but it looks like it might be just as onerous a task to find a good spot to watch the game at a bar.
Fans began pouring into local watering holes more than 12 hours before Friday’s scheduled 8:08 p.m. ET first pitch simply to reserve a spot.
Pro tip: To anyone in the adult diaper industry, set up shop outside this bar. You might do some killer business today.
