World Series ticket prices jump to $1,600-$17,000 per seat

The cost for seats to the World Series jumped roughly 21% after the LA Dodgers won the NCLS win, according to ticket-seller Gametime. The Final Round panel breaks down why ticket prices for the 2020 World Series have skyrocketed.

Video Transcript

- So moving on to-- I think it's a fun story. Yes, there are still fun stories out there. We're going to talk about sports. And we've been talking about sports with Dan Roberts and we keep talking about, oh my, the ratings are down. This is terrible. Nobody's watching sports. Nobody cares about sports anymore. But Dan, the Dodgers get into the World Series and apparently tickets to go to the game-- the actual game-- are spiking in price. What are the details?

DAN ROBERTS: Yeah, so this, Jen, is on a secondary resale sites. And they're only allowing 11,000 tickets to be sold per game. Now, of course, the teams are playing at a neutral site. That neutral site is the Texas Rangers' ballpark in Texas. And now you've got the Dodgers and the Rays.

So just to give a sense of capacity, it's about 20%. Because the ballpark holds 50,000 they're only letting 11,000 fans in. And by the way, there's not even a guarantee that, you know, that'll sell out and that 11,000 can go. But there are tickets being sold on these resale sites. And prices spiked when the Dodgers clinched it. It makes sense. It's a great match up. It was looking like Rays-Braves. The Dodgers came back to win it.

Now, the Dodgers haven't won the World Series since I was one-year-old. The Rays have never won the World Series. The Dodgers were just in it, you know, and lost to the Astros, so people kind of feel like this is the redemption. And I think the Dodgers have actually been in it twice in the last five years-- at least in the NLCS-- and they just haven't made it. And there's a huge beloved fan base there. So the spike makes some sense.

Now, but what does that mean relative to ratings? You would think it might mean, also, that this World Series will rate better than the MLB postseason has been rating otherwise. I imagine that will be the case. But, it's also-- you know, we shouldn't assume correlation there. That just because, you know, Dodgers fans are willing to pay up to go now that they're allowed to go, that that means that the ratings will be better. And of course, we don't have to prompt the whole ratings debate again about all the different reasons that's happening.

But look, any tickets that MLB can sell here are extra revenue that the league needs desperately. I mean, it hasn't had butts in seats for the whole postseason for the most part. And MLB-- like Major League Soccer and to an extent NBA, but not like NFL-- which really only needs the TV money-- MLB is very reliant on game day revenues. That means people buying tickets, concessions, parking, merch. All the things that happen when you allow fans to come to the game.

So 11,000 fans allowed at each game. You know, prices spiking. It's good. I mean, it's something to celebrate for Major League Baseball. I'm excited about this series. But as you mentioned, you know, something is going on. Something larger is going on with live sports' TV ratings compared to last year in the last three months.

- Yeah. And Dan, something to celebrate, of course, for baseball fans, but also Los Angeles people. 1988 was the last time that the Dodgers and Lakers won both titles, so I can tell you-- I'm here getting the pulse of people in Los Angeles-- they are willing to pay an arm and a leg to travel to Texas because this feels like an unprecedented moment.

And of course, you have to mention, you know, team Kobe. Right? A lot of this ammunition that was building for a long time, I think they're coupling it just with this LA fever. And especially during a very tumultuous, largely sad year. I think people are just very excited to be able to cheer on and feel like they have a bigger mission at play. So this is one of those moments where I do feel like sports is really bringing people together.

I do not want to be a bandwagon fan. I can't even call myself a Dodgers fan just yet. But maybe a couple of years more in Los Angeles and I will proudly be able to say that.

- Booo.

- [LAUGHS]

- San Francisco Giants. All right. We can't get into turf warfare about California. But anyhow, Dodger blue. It's OK, I'll try and get my head around it. I do think it's interesting with this data, Dan, you said, what can we extrapolate from it? And it is hard right now to say anything on the ratings. Although I think people probably are breathing a sigh of relief that it is the Dodgers. That's maybe the best you can hope for.

But just today in terms of stocks we're seeing higher, we've gotten Norwegian and Wynn and Royal Caribbean. The airlines. We've got Marriott. Look, maybe people want to go out and we're seeing that people are willing to pay up right now for baseball. So, that's one thing. Can't take it to the bank, but you can take it somewhere.