Even though the game is more than two months away, baseball fans are already thinking about this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in St. Louis, and due to the slow economy, ticket prices will be substantially lower than for last year’s Mid-Summer Classic in New York City.
This year’s game will take place on July 14 at Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals, with ticket prices carrying a face value ranging from $100 to $360 apiece. By contrast, last year’s game, which took place during the final year at the old Yankee Stadium, had prices that ranged from $150 to $725, more than double the most expensive ticket in 2009.
Reasons for the decline are obvious. Poor economic times, combined with St. Louis being a smaller market than New York as well as last season’s added appeal of the closing of Yankee Stadium are all contributing factors. Despite all that the Cardinals, which have long been recognized for having some of the most loyal fans, are confident that this All-Star Game will be among the best ever.
“We promise an All-Star Game experience that will serve as the standard for years to come,” team Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said to the Belleville News-Democrat.
Whether or not consumers are willing to pay to witness that promise will be tested, and the place that will truly show the demand for tickets will be the secondary market. According to the ticket data of last year’s game from StubHub, the average price for a on the Web site was $932, with the most expensive ticket sold being $14,500.
If you look on TicketNetwork.com, tickets for this years game are listed for as low as $324, with the most expensive ticket listed at less than $5,000. As weeks go by, those prices will most likely drop, as has been the trend over the past two years.
Ticket prices for the other All-Star Game festivities at Busch Stadium, including the home run derby and All-Star workout day, will have a face value be $75 and $335. Again, these prices are dwarfed by what the Yankees charged last season for game festivities, which went as high as $650 per ticket.
