# Baseball Ticket Prices; Why I went to so many games as a kid



## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Found this today when going through some old stuff....

Box Seats: $7 regular price
General Admission: $3

Last Friday Night, I dropped: $25 each ticket for the cheapest ones in the park (then moved down closer to the plate, but still way up in the upper deck).

$30 to park the car

$40 in food and drink. (Two Drinks, Two Hot Dogs, a Cheeseburger and a Frozen Chill)

And that was for just two people (My Son and I)

I now know why, my entire baseball team could go to a game a week, and my dad (or my friend's dad) could take us to a couple games a WEEK.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

My dad and I used to go a few times a summer when I was a kid and sit in the third base box seats. At the time, my dad worked on the line at GM and we lived paycheck to paycheck. But we could afford baseball tickets occasionally.

I haven't purchased a ticket to a sporting event in years and I won't have that same experience with my kids. It's just too damn expensive


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## Hutchinshouse (Sep 28, 2006)

Box Seats: $7 Nice!

My last beer at Dodger stadium was $7.

Time sure does fly. I still remember my very first ballgame at Fenway Park.


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

Earl Bonovich said:


> Found this today when going through some old stuff....
> 
> Box Seats: $7 regular price
> General Admission: $3
> ...


Same can be said for going to a movie!


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

+1 Earl.

I went to a lot of Dodgers games as a kid. Some came from being a good student - I got two tickets for free (with the offer to buy more for the rest of the family) for four games a year. And these were good, lower level seats.

But even if we paid for four tickets, as a family we'd would go to Dodgers games, sometimes on decision made that day. It was cheap family entertainment.


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## Ira Lacher (Apr 24, 2002)

Baseball tickets have far exceeded the inflation rate. The $3.50 box seats at Shea and Yankee stadiums of 1969 should cost $25 today. Other sports have kept in line with inflation; baseball has rocketed past it.


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## jdh8668 (Nov 7, 2007)

Unfortunately the Cubs losing habits are now the same as they were back in the good old days. Although 1969 was fun to watch them until September. My folks took my brother and I to several series that year including a series against Atlanta in August where I saw Kenny Holtzman throw a no-hitter. Still have that ticket stub too.


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## woj027 (Sep 3, 2007)

I love that old White Sox logo. I remember screen printing it in school for an art project.

GO Sox!!!


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

I don't go to many MLB games myself (though the Reds have sold out recently), but this is why I go to many more minor league games. This past season, I was at the championship game when our ECHL hockey team won the Kelley Cup. Tickets were $14, and that gets you fairly close (the more expensive VIP seats are too close for me.)


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## hoophead (Feb 10, 2008)

When I was growing up we (myself, brother,friend) took the Greyhound bus from our smaller town to Milwaukee for a bunch of summer day games and bleacher seats were $ .50 :grin:

That was about 1964/1965


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

The last major league game I was at (1987) was a Minnesota Twins game and I paid $9.00 for a seat directly behind the catcher and about 1/3 of the way up (I believe they called it the club section).
Growing up that same $9.00 would get me a good seat into a Tucson Toro's minor league game plus a program, hot dog and a Pepsi.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

I went to White Sox at Seattle game last year. Sat directly behind the plate about 20 rows up. Cost? $30.

Same seats here in Philly would be about $100 each.


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## Game Fan (Sep 8, 2007)

The last few time I have had tickets, Cardinals & Reds and Colts, I gave them away. While there is nothing like "being there" I would just as soon stay home and watch it on my big screen.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

MysteryMan said:


> Same can be said for going to a movie!


I spent $17 just for admission for 2 people last weekend. Kinda makes the $5.99 cinema movies seem cheap...


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## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

I was lucky enough to get tickets for the 1975 World Series game 5, Reds vs Red Sox at Riverfront Stadium. I still have the ticket stub. Cost was $8.00.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Phil T said:


> I was lucky enough to get tickets for the 1975 World Series game 5, Reds vs Red Sox at Riverfront Stadium. I still have the ticket stub. Cost was $8.00.


That wouldn't even cover the "program" at the World Series now.


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## 1980ws (Mar 18, 2008)

dpeters11 said:


> I don't go to many MLB games myself (though the Reds have sold out recently), but this is why I go to many more minor league games. This past season, I was at the championship game when our ECHL hockey team won the Kelley Cup. Tickets were $14, and that gets you fairly close (the more expensive VIP seats are too close for me.)


I'm so jealous of cities that have minor league hockey or baseball. Great fun at a fraction of the cost. Here in Orlando we have but one sport and it's one I don't even like. Hershey Bears hockey in my youth I could practically be standing on the ice for $5. Going to the Rays in St. Pete isn't to bad, I can get us in decent seats (lower level) for about $15 (thanks to Stubhub) each, free parking as long as we have 4 or more people.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Curse you Bears! You knocked my Monarchs out of the Calder Cup playoffs!

I had FANTASTIC seats for Game 5 in Manchester (Hershey winning in overtime) and it was a VERY good game to watch.

Conversely, the last time I was at Fenway Park (courtesy of my employer) was for $26 deep right field bleacher seats against the Angels and I got to see the infamous double play that got Manny Ramirez run out of town (grounder to third, 3B has a little trouble fielding it, throws to second to barely beat the runner who relays to first and beat Manny by leagues - Manny did barely more than a walk down the line when he should have EASILY beaten the relay throw and kept the inning going).

Guess where I keep going?


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## Msguy (May 23, 2003)

I've got an old ticket stub from 1993. The print on the ticket has just about faded. I only paid $3.00 back in 93 to sit in the outfield bleachers at Wrigley. $3. And back then I rode the "EL" to Wrigley and it only cost me about .75 cents for a "EL" Train ticket to get to the ballgame. I went back in 2001 where that ticket stub still has the print on it and it was $32 back in 2001. I since do not live in Chicago anymore. 9 years later i'm guessing tickets are about $50 dollars a pop or more now. But yes Baseball's best days for fans are behind us. Ticket prices everywhere have sky rocketed. Another 10 years and baseball ticket prices will be up there with NFL ticket prices and then noone will be able to afford to go to any games.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Msguy said:


> Another 10 years and baseball ticket prices will be up there with NFL ticket prices and then noone will be able to afford to go to any games.


I have much less of an issue with NFL tickets being as costly as they are (but I do think they should be much lower still).

With the NFL, there is only 8 home games (if you exclude pre-season and playoffs). 8 chances for about 480,000 - 800,000 times the turnstile

Baseball: 81 Home games anywhere from 2,800,000 - 4,500,000 opportunities for the turnstile to rotate.

Given that on a baseball team: it has HALF the players.

This doesn't even cover the "parking" that has 10 times the opportunities to drive in revenue... 10 times the opportunity to drive in concession and souvinere sales.

For football you just don't have that many opportunities to see your home team in person... it isn't a diluted (IMHO).


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

$38.00 X 5 this past week....plus of course.....parking and food.

$300+

Not cheap.


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## Sharkie_Fan (Sep 26, 2006)

The Giants this year (I Think it was this year, anyway) switched their entire pricing structure to "Market Rate" pricing.

In years past, we'd catch a game or two a year, because the bleacher seats - which are actually really decent seats at AT&T park - were only $17. This year, those tickets are anywhere from $9 to $55, IIRC. If they're playing a crappy team, the tickets are cheaper, but if they're playing a team you actually want to watch, you have to pay these outrageous prices.... And it's the same all over the ballpark, not just these seats. So, for instance, a Giants-Dodgers game, they're charging 2 & 3 times the normal price for every seat in the joint!

Good news is that the Oakland Athletics are just about the same drive from my house and their tickets are still dirt cheap - the advantages of having a crappy team playing in a dump of a stadium! I think you can sit 10 rows (or so) from the field for $35 or so!


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> $38.00 X 5 this past week....plus of course.....parking and food.
> 
> $300+
> 
> Not cheap.


And at $38.00 a ticket, you probably would have had a better "view" in front of the TV


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Here's a laugh.. I read a story from the 1970s or so that predicted an unusual outcome of the increasing rights fees (peanuts by today's standards) for television.

They actually predicted that, eventually, the teams would get so much money from television (which came true) that they would be giving away tickets for free as they wouldn't need that revenue stream but WOULD need to show people in the stands. In other words, going to a ballgame would be like going to a TV show taping.


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## yosoyellobo (Nov 1, 2006)

I remember going to the Yankee Stadium and sitting in the bleachers for 50 cent. Micky Mantle hit one over our head.


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## Ira Lacher (Apr 24, 2002)

I remember 75 cents. But box seats were $3.50. And there were plenty of them available.


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