MLB Ticket Information
Major League Baseball has one of the longest seasons of any of the professional sports organizations, with each team playing 162 games spread out over half of the calendar year. Opening Day for all 30 teams takes place in April, with the final regular season pitch thrown the early October. This season the MLB has had one of the lowest median ticket prices of any of the professional sports leagues, with only six MLB Teams (Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins, and Philadelphia Phillies) having a median ticket price of $60 or more.
The 2016 World Series Champions, the Chicago Cubs, have the highest regular season median ticket price in 2017, at $70, while the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels both came in with a MLB low median price of $30. The Chicago Cubs have experienced an astounding 114% increase in their median ticket price compared to the 2015 season as they remained the top team in the MLB the entire 2016 season, and that success has rolled over to the 2017 season.
Like past performance, a team’s overall popularity plays a huge role in ticket prices in the MLB. Other factors such as weather and stadium renovations also play factors in the price of MLB tickets over the course of the season. In 2017, 3 teams that did not reach the postseason in 2016 have median ticket prices near the top in MLB, including the Kansas City Royals, Philadelphia Phillies, and Minnesota Twins, with ticket prices at $63, $61, and $62 respectively.
While big matchups like, Yankees vs. “insert team name here”, Giants vs. Dodgers, Rangers vs. Astros, and Cubs vs. Cardinals, still carry weight in determining the average ticket prices one factor that outweighs them all is a team’s opening day game. As with all things, demand drives inflation and with more than half of the teams in the MLB seeing more than a 20% increase in attendance for their home openers, it’s no wonder why the build up to opening day is such a celebrated event in the MLB.
Ticket prices based on averages as of March 30, 2017