Ticket prices for Boston-New York drop to $5
Gone are days of cost carrying big number
Remember the height of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, when tickets for spring training games between the teams in 2004 went for hundreds or even thousands of dollars? In more ways than one, that was a long time ago.
On Monday morning, ticket resellers had available inventory for the series opener at Fenway Park between the fourth- and fifth-place teams in the American League East for as little as $10. By the afternoon, the price had dipped to $9, and roughly 90 minutes before the scheduled first pitch, you could find two seats together for as little as $5 each (with fees pushing that closer to $9 per seat).
Ace Ticket owner Jim Holtzman said he was donating hundreds of tickets for Monday’s game to charitable organizations.
“As a business owner, sometimes when I see tickets selling, getting to the point of being as low as they are, I’d just as soon give them to charity,” Holtzman said. “Let someone go to a game who would otherwise not be able to go, and take an opportunity to thank a public service person or support a youth group. I’d much rather give them away than sell them for $10.
“I feel much better taking a $50 seat and giving it away than selling it for $10.”
Holtzman cited multiple factors to explain the low demand for the longtime rivals. With both teams out of the playoff mix, midweek games in September — after the start of the school year — tend to lose their luster. Moreover, a poor weather forecast further dampened enthusiasm.
“Sometimes tickets go for hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and other times they go for as little as $10,” he said. “At the end, demand determines the price. There’s still Red Sox fans who want to go to the game. It’s still a great rivalry . . . But when was the last time both teams have had this bad of records simultaneously?
“It’s hard to be motivated to go to the game if the weather’s not good. The Red Sox, more than any team in Boston, are weather-dependent.”
Tickets on the secondary market remain available for less than $20 for the games Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, however, tickets start at nearly $40 — still below face value, but more in line with typical demand.
“Normal Red Sox-Yankees games, the prices are, like, $50, $70, even $100,” Holtzman said.
So when was the last time tickets for a game between these teams went for $10 or less?
“There’s been other games where you’ve kind of seen a similar thing, but not with the Red Sox-Yankees,” Holtzman said. “These may be the lowest prices in 20 years for a Red Sox-Yankee game.
“These are things in my memory I just want to suppress.”