Turns out everything really is bigger in Texas.
The World Series is finally coming to the Dallas area after a 38-year wait and the demand for tickets is, quite literally, overwhelming TexasTickets.com and its president, Scott Baima.
“So big I don’t even have time to talk,” Baima told TicketNews Monday, October 25. “Biggest event I’ve ever seen in Dallas.”
The World Series matchup between the Rangers (which clinched their first American League pennant by beating the New York Yankees in Game Six of the AL Championship Series Friday, October 22) and San Francisco Giants (which eliminated the two-time defending NL champion Philadelphia Phillies in Game Six of the NL Championship Series Saturday, October 23) is not what anyone expected back in April. Nor, is it the kind of marquee matchup that whets the appetites of TV executives.
But with two championship-starved franchises opposing one another in a series that should be evenly matched and filled with enticing pitching matchups — Game One starters Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum have combined to win three Cy Young Awards — brokers expect the Series to fare well both in Dallas and San Francisco as well as with the hardcore fan.
“Anytime you have a first-time team in the World Series, it’s unique, number one,” Alliance Tickets owner Roger Jones told TicketNews. “Number two, you have a great geographical market in San Francisco. Number three is some tremendous pitching matchups.”
Demand seems as intense in San Francisco as it is in the Dallas area. The Giants, which won just their fourth pennant since moving to San Francisco in 1958 and who haven’t won the World Series since 1954 — the third-longest drought among Major League Baseball teams that have won the World Series behind only the Cubs and Indians — have the home field advantage thanks to the NL winning the All-Star Game. The Giants will host Games One and Two Wednesday, October 27 and Thursday, October 28.
As of this afternoon, the cheapest ticket listed on StubHub to Game One was a standing room only seat priced at $372 — more than 700 percent the face value of $50. The cheapest actual seat listed on StubHub was a $575 View Reserve left field seat. Face value for that ducat is $90. Whether those tickets will sell for those amounts is anyone’s guess, but interest in the series in the two cities is very high.
The Series heads to Texas Saturday, October 30 for Games Three thru Five (if necessary) and the cheapest ticket five days before the first-ever Fall Classic pitch in Arlington is a standing room only seat priced at $500 on StubHub. SRO seats are not even listed on the Rangers’ official Web site, where the lowest ticket price is for a $75 grandstand reserved ticket. The cheapest grandstand reserved seat at StubHub was going for $599.
Nationally, there has not been the type of interest created by last year’s Yankees-Phillies matchup, but Jones expects the Series to gain momentum with fans outside of Dallas and San Francisco over the next 48 hours.
“We’ve seen [demand] to be slightly less.” Jones said. “I think that coming out of this past weekend, where there was college football and some nice matchups, that the next couple days [fans are] going to be able to focus on football.
“I think people were waiting for the matchup. I think it’s always matchup-driven. So although people wanted to see Yankees-Phillies II, if you will, I think now you have the real baseball fans vying [for tickets].”
