The New York Yankees will face the defending World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies in baseball’s Fall Classic, and ticket brokers may be in for a healthy payday.
While some diehard baseball fans might have preferred the Los Angeles Dodgers as the Yankees opponent for nostalgic reasons, the Philadelphia/New York match-up pits two rival East Coast cities against each other with fans more than willing to drive the couple of hours between the two ballparks. The Yankees wrapped up the American League title Sunday night with a 5-2 victory at Yankee Stadium over the Los Angeles Angels.
In fact, Philadelphia is beating out its Big Apple brother in early ticket sales on the secondary market.
“The Phillies average ticket prices were $1,645,” Christian Anderson, spokesperson for ticket search engine FanSnap, told TicketNews. “The get-in price is $650. Compare that to Game 1 in New York where the average ticket listing is $769 and the get-in is $410.”
Springfield, NJ-based broker Robert Groder, owner of Ticketville Tickets, believes the discrepancy in prices between the games in Philadelphia and the games in New York is partly due to Philadelphia fans being hungrier for championships. While New York can claim three Giants Super Bowl wins and four Yankees World Series wins since 1986, Philadelphia fans have last year’s lone World Series win to hang their hat on.
“Ticket prices for the games Philadelphia are stronger than in New York right now,” Groder told TicketNews. “There’s also less inventory around for the Philadelphia games as opposed to the New York games.”
Jeff Greenberg, owner of Maryland-based ASC Ticket, agreed. “Sales are very strong. Phillies is better, because they currently have 20 percent fewer tickets on the secondary market.”
Groder has access to about 20 tickets between the two teams, and he said that so far he’s resold several for both stadiums, with his Yankees tickets going for $450 for the 400 Level Grandstand, and Phillies tickets going for $1,000 for the lower outfield area, where homeruns are sure to land.
“I’m seeing tickets for the Philly games for between $800 and $1,500, so mine are competitive,” Groder said. “So, I expect to move more.”
On StubHub, the official ticket resale site for Major League Baseball, the average ticket selling price for Phillies World Series tickets is $946, up from $903 last year. The average selling price for Yankees tickets is $666.
“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,” FanSnap’s Anderson said. “If these prices hold, look for lots of red [shirts and hats, the color of the Phillies] in Yankee Stadium.”