Tickets for the World Series are as good as gold -- literally.Worries about the economy have pushed up prices for the precious metal above $1,000 an ounce, a level many fans are willing to pay for good tickets to baseball's championship, which starts Wednesday in New York.
The ticket search engine FanSnap.com estimates that some ticket sellers are asking more than $1,600 for Game 3 of the showdown between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, greater than the cost of a pair of pearl earrings ($660) round-trip airfare between the city of Brotherly Love and Tokyo ($778) or a half-pound of frozen gourmet white truffles ($1,300).
FanSnap said getting in the door of Citizens Bank Park will cost $650, enough for the standing room only area that are for sale. Since the Yankees became Philadelphia's World Series opponent, Phillies tickets are up 127 percent, according to RazorGator.com, an online ticket marketplace.
FanSnap also says the Yankees are a bargain compared to the Phillies with average ticket listings at $769 and a "get-in" price of $410, which will get a fan bleacher seats for Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. Ticket brokers say that the disparity between New York and Philadelphia prices are a result of an imbalance between supply and demand that will not last.
"We'll be watching prices in Philadelphia and New York very closely in the coming days to see what happens to ticket availability and prices." Christian Anderson, a FanSnap spokesman, said in an email.
The ticket market also fluctuates -- sometimes wildly -- making ticket prices hard to pin down. Moreover, just because someone asks for a high price does not mean they will get it. But demand remains high and some people will go to any lengths to cheer their team to victory in person. One woman was arrested in the suburbs of Philadelphia for allegedly trying to barter sex for World Series tickets.
Over 200 confused fans stormed Yankee Stadium's front doors Wednesday morning -- some waiting some 30 hours in the rain -- when they realized the team was not selling any World Series tickets, according to the New York Post. One Yankee fan told the paper that he was so disgusted that he was rooting for the Phillies.
The New York Daily News reported that the Yankees handed out free baseball caps to the die-hard fans who braved the elements including Nancy Wandell, 38, who waited at Yankee Stadium despite battling a flu bug through the night.
StubHub, the secondary ticket market endorsed by Major League Baseball, continues to see a brisk trade in World Series tickets. Its figures are different than FanSnap because they only include completed or pending sales. FanSnap includes listings from many sites.
StubHub estimates that the average selling price for New York World Series tickets is $698, up $464 from when the Yankees and Marlins squared off in the 2003 Fall Classic. Philadelphia tickets are averaging $977, up from the $903 tickets sold for last year when the Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays.
Prices start to climb higher as the drama builds: Game 2 tickets have fetched $701. Game 3 and Game 4 tickets have sold for more than $1,000 each. Prices plunge again for Game 5 ($875), Game 6 ($658) and Game 7 ($668), which are only played if necessary.
There are other challenges people face going to the game, including a possible transit strike in Philadelphia. Traveling to New York will be no picnic, either, especially during rush hour. Visitors to Philadelphia may also run into difficulty finding a hotel room because thousands of infectious disease scientists are holding their annual meeting while the Series is in town.
"That, combined with visitors for Game Three of the World Series in addition to the fact that Saturday is generally the busiest night of the week, has pretty much filled most of Center City hotel rooms for Saturday, Oct. 31, " said Caroline Beam, a spokeswoman for the Greater Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.
