Want to attend next week’s MLB All-Star Game or Home Run Derby at Dodger Stadium? Try not to let those ticket prices smack you too hard in the wallet. You can expect to pay anywhere from $200 to $15,000 or more, according to local ticket brokers.
That’s a lot more, of course, than tickets cost in 1980, the last time the All-Star Game was staged at Chavez Ravine. Back then, tickets sold for $20 (field, loge, club), $15 (reserved) and $8 (top deck, pavilions), according to longtime sports public relations guru Steve Brener. Of course, that’s the face value, not the brokers’ price, and the secondary market has changed wildly in 40 years, since the process moved online.
Such markups for high-profile sports events aren’t unusual, especially in an iconic setting such as Dodger Stadium, in the middle of summer in a hot market such as Los Angeles. Also, according to Felicia Behar, owner of Coast Tickets in Long Beach, special events such as these simply don’t come along very often and some fans are willing to pay for such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Ticket prices this year appear to be topping what fans were willing to pay last year at Coors Field in Denver, according to Seat Geek. But it’s all relative – prices are lower than folks paid for Super Bowl tickets in February at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, an event renowned for its stunning markups each year.
Behar said her tickets for Monday’s Home Run Derby start at about $200 and go way up from there – to $7,500 apiece for dugout club seats behind home plate.
“It doesn’t mean there won’t be anything less,” said Behar, who has owned Coast Tickets for 22-plus years. “But that’s an average for the Home Run Derby, from what I’m seeing right now.”
Behar’s tickets for Tuesday’s All-Star Game are even more expensive, but it should be noted that her prices are competitive with other brokers and agencies.
“It looks like right now it’s about $300 to get in and the dugout seats can go as high as $10,000 to $15,000, but I do see some dugout seats for about $3,500 and some just under $3,000,” she said Thursday.
She said one could get a field box seat for the game as low as $675 on the low end.
“And then if you went to the high end, going up to in the thousands,” Behar said. “It’s kind of fluctuating and I think it’s going to stabilize once more people get into town and realize it’s actually happening.”
On Ticketmaster, dugout seats for Tuesday’s game were selling for as high as $15,338 apiece as of Thursday evening. Some were just under $3,000 with top deck seats going for as high as the $600s and field-level seats going for over $1,000. It did have two reserve-level seats going for $292 each.
That doesn’t mean people aren’t buying.
“My sales are going probably as expected,” Behar said. “I won’t say it’s, like, booming, but there’s definitely interest.”
Some are balking, though.
One man, Sergio Varela of La Puente, said he was offered two loge-level seats for $457 apiece for Tuesday’s game through StubHub.
“Not interested,” said Varela, who said he would be watching Monday and Tuesday from home.
Jeffrey Geller bought two reserve-level tickets on the third-base line for the Home Run Derby through Vivid Seats for $193 per ticket. He said he chose Vivid over TickPick because he wanted a specific section and TickPick was charging $205 and StubHub was charging $216 apiece for the same tickets.
He said the cheapest tickets he found for the game in his desired section were between $275 and $315 each.
For context, top deck seats available for an upcoming July 21 regular-season game against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium can be had for as low as $56 through the Dodger Stadium ticket office, with field box seats going for as low as $143, loge-level seats for as low as $149. The top ticket price for that night is $1,350.
Over at Barry’s Tickets in Calabasas, top deck seats for the Home Run Derby were starting at $160, $262 for the All-Star Game.
As of Thursday afternoon, StubHub had tickets for the Home Run Derby for as low as $120 (reserve), but there were only two for that price. And for the game for as low as $200 (top deck) apiece, but there were only four at that price with the next level of pricing beginning at $220 and moving on up from there.
Behar is also selling parking for anywhere from $50 to $500.
“Sometimes the stadium will jack up the price on parking, day of the event, so it’s best to get parking in advance, to be honest,” said Behar, whose agency is also selling tickets for the fan experience (Play Ball Park) in downtown L.A. for as little as $25.
As for Dodgers season-ticket holders, they were given an early opportunity to purchase All-Star ticket packages that guaranteed them seats, all or nearly all at their normal location, said Matt Bourne, of Major League Baseball.
The package included tickets for all three ballpark events – including Saturday’s All-Star Futures Game – Play Ball Park and a game program.
After season-ticket holders, general fans had the chance to buy the same packages. Once those two avenues took place, single event tickets were made available if there were any remaining.
As of Friday, there were some tickets available to Tuesday’s game at prices ranging from $450 to $700 for pavilion seats.
There were also tickets for Monday’s Home Run Derby ranging from $275-$675 for loge and field boxes down the lines.
Source: Orange County Register
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