The 2022 World Series stage has been set with a powerhouse matchup between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros.
The first game is set to be played on Friday, Oct. 28, and tickets are on sale for every game, with prices varying wildly depending on what game and what city fans are interested in.
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The average ticket price for games in Philadelphia ($3,228) is more than double the average price for games in Houston ($1,584), according to Monday data from TicketIQ. “Get-in” tickets, the cheapest tickets that would get a fan into the stadium for a game, are also priced higher in Philly. The get-in price for Game 3, to be held in the City of Brotherly Love, is $1,720, compared with $514 for Houston’s Game 1 and $767 for a potential Game 7.
The ticket prices for Philadelphia home games are the second highest since TicketIQ began collecting such data in 2010, trailing only tickets for the 2016 Chicago Cubs’ home games.
Read more: 2022 World Series: When it starts, how to watch, odds and more
Why such a discrepancy in ticket prices?
One reason for the price difference may be the lack of success of the Phillies franchise in recent years.
“We are seeing the impact on sales from the decade-long pent-up anticipation of Philly fans eager to return to the World Series, whereas Astros fans have had the opportunity four of the last six years,” a StubHub spokesperson told MarketWatch. “This was evident in the Championship Series in which Phillies fans drove twice the total ticket sales at home per game than Houston did, on average. Phillies fans are simply spending and buying more after a long-awaited fight for the championship.”
Last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a feature about how some local fans were OK with spending hundreds of dollars on tickets to watch the Phillies play against the San Diego Padres in the National League Championship Series.
“I don’t want to say it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Danica Jordan, a 33-year-old Philadelphia resident who says she used savings to buy a $309 standing-room ticket to an NLCS game, told the Inquirer. “It’s a rare-enough thing that I’m willing to go all in on this.”
Compare that to the Houston Astros, who have made appearing in the World Series something of a habit. The team, whose reputation was recently marred by a sign-stealing scandal, has appeared in four of the last six World Series.
Tickets to World Series games are not included in the normal ticket package for Phillies and Astros season-ticket holders. In a near-universal practice among teams across the four major U.S. sports, season-ticket packages are for regular-season games only. Many teams, however, offer season-ticket holders perks for home games, which may include discounts, first right to purchase their normal seats or related vouchers.
World Series tickets can be purchased on most major ticketing platforms, including Live Nation
LYV,
StubHub and Vivid Seats
SEAT,
The average price of a ticket to a sporting event has gone up 116% over the last 15 years, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. Average price increases for sporting-event tickets slightly outpaced overall U.S. inflation over that period.
The Astros had a far better regular season than the Phillies and are seen as moderate favorites to win the World Series. Houston is a -185 favorite over the Phillies (+160), which carries an implied probability of 64.9%, according to DraftKings Inc.
DKNG,
Sportsbook.
Friday’s Game 1 will be broadcast on FOX. Those without a cable subscription can watch all the games on FuboTV
FUBO,
Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV or YouTubeTV.
