One-game playoff for the American League Central Division crown

The state of Minnesota remains on a sports ticket hot streak.

With tickets to tonight’s NFL matchup between the Green Bay Packer and the Minnesota Vikings commanding top dollar, now comes a one-game baseball playoff Tuesday between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins for the American League Central Division title. The game, scheduled for 4pm CST, will be played at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

The two teams tied in wins and losses Sunday to force the 163rd game, and the winner will face the New York Yankees in a best-of-five series that will begin either Wednesday or Thursday (the Yankees ended the regular season with the best record in baseball and can pick the day).

Tickets to the one-game playoff are a hot commodity on the primary ticket market.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, ticket requests jammed the Twins’ phone lines to the point that officials could not call out. Like a lot of teams, the Twins have been increasingly relying on the Internet for many of its ticket sales, so its phone sales have dropped until now. But, due to the last-minute nature of the tiebreaker game, a lot of fans want the security of speaking to a live person for their tickets.

The game had not sold out by early afternoon, but it was expected to before the evening rush hour. “We haven’t gotten official word that it is sold out, but I am guessing it’s getting close,” team spokesperson Molly Gallatin told the Star Tribune, via email.

On the secondary market, brokers are willing to deal. For example, on StubHub, the average ticket price for the game was $78, according to Corporate Communications Manager Joellen Ferrer. On TicketLiquidator.com, tickets were selling for as low as $49 and up to $578. Ticket Liquidator is owned by TicketNews’s parent company TicketNetwork.