Chicago Cubs World Series Ticket Prices Plummet

There was a lot of talk when the Cubs qualified for the World Series about the price of tickets for the games at Wrigley Field. After the Cubs won game two, the game five tickets which was a potential clinching game skyrocketed.

Tickets earlier in the week were going for the tens of thousands of dollars with a high of an astronomical $996,000. Expecting anyone to pay that amount was senseless. According to the Chicago Tribune, $23,402 was the highest amount paid for two tickets.

Those tickets are directly behind the Cubs dugout for game Seven at Progressive Field. Stub Hub spokesman Cameron Papp told the Chicago Tribune that the tickets were purchased by someone in the Chicago Area.

As expected, the ticket prices for game five at Wrigley Field plummeted after the Cubs lost game five, giving the Indians a three games to one series lead. Darren Rovell of ESPN reported this morning that 445 tickets on Stubhub were listed under $1000.

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Danny Ecker of Crain’s Chicago Business reported that average ticket prices for game five dropped from an average of $4096 on Friday morning to $1009 this morning. Ticket IQ a self-proclaimed ticket aggregator reports that in spite of the price drop, it’s still one of the ten most expensive average ticket prices they’ve ever tracked.

The demand for tickets has even spilled over to divorce court. Chicago Suburban woman Nancy Riddle took her estranged husband to court over tickets for game four. Cook County Judge Marya Nega ruled that the husband could keep the tickets and take their 12-year-old son, but had to purchase tickets for his ex-wife to be in a comparable section. The cheapest available ticket that was comparable was $3,000.

The highest price currently listed on Stub Hub are $75,000 for two tickets in the second row just to the left of home plate. Papp added “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen for baseball”

The Tribune also interviewed Glenn Norman who owns a company called O’Hare Personal Valet. Norman related that he was attempting to sell four tickets in the 10th row behind home plate for $17,500 each. The highest offer he had received as of Thursday was for $9,500 each.

The ticket prices as to be expected fluctuated early in the series with the Cubs fortunes. The Tribune reported that when the Cubs lost Game one, prices for Game 4 dropped 25 percent. The Cubs Game two victory increased  tickets prices by 10 percent.

The higher demand for tickets in Chicago has prompted many more Cubs fans than Indians fans to take the initiative to travel to see a World Series Game on the road.

Twenty-Five percent of the tickets that were sold in Cleveland were purchased by fans in the Chicago area, versus only 16 percent of the tickets at Wrigley Field purchased by those in Cleveland.

Chris Leyden who is a spokesman for online ticket firm  SeatGeek said about the Cubs fans interest in buying tickets in Cleveland:

"“A lot of Cubs fans are thinking, ‘If I want to be there when they win, it’ll probably happen in Cleveland…And because of that, if there’s a Game 6 or Game 7, it will almost look like a Cubs home game.”"

The average sale price is significantly lower than the average listed price. According to CNN Money, tickets are being sold for an average of $4,096.

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Fans have become so desperate to get tickets, that there are over 100 GoFundMe pages that have raised over $100,000.