World Series ticket prices soaring on secondary market

Ford’s Model T rolled off the assembly line for the first time days before the Chicago Cubs won their last World Series title in 1908.

Now it will cost about as much as a gently used Ford Focus to get into games at Wrigley Field for the World Series against the Cleveland Indians. The Cubs’ final home game of the World Series is tracking to be among the most expensive tickets in sports history.

Tickets for all three games in Chicago had an average listing price of more than $ 4,000 on the secondary ticket market as of Sunday. Game 5, which wouldn’t be played if there’s a sweep, had an average listing price of $ 4,614 on the secondary ticket market, according to ticket sales and tracking site SeatGeek.

“Right now Game 5 in Chicago would be the second- most in- demand event we have ever seen, only topped by Mayweather- Pacquiao,” said SeatGeek spokesman Chris Leyden, whose site has tracked the secondary market since 2010. “That means right now it tops all of the Super Bowls we have seen. That being said, I would expect that price to end up lower, unless the Cubs are going for the clinch that game.”

Ticket prices generally spike in the hours after a team clinches a berth in the next round, only to come down in the hours before the series get underway. The Cubs dispatched the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 5- 0 victory in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on Saturday.

The home games for the Indians, who last won the World Series in 1948, cost slightly above average when compared with other recent World Series. The average price for the first two games of the series at Progressive Field was about $ 1,200. Game 1 is Tuesday.