Giants-Dodgers Playoff Frenzy Driving Ticket Prices Skyward
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The growing frenzy over the first playoff showdown in more than 100 years between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers sent ticket prices soaring among resellers on Thursday.
The chant of "Beat LA" will be echoing through San Francisco's neighborhoods starting Friday night, but it won't nearly as loud as inside Oracle Park.
It's not only been one of the best rivalries in all sports, but the competition between the two cities is woven into every facet of life.
Who has the best restaurants? The historic roots of rock music -- San Francisco's Haight Ashbury District or Los Angeles' Laurel Canyon? Most exclusive place to live -- Hillsborough or Brentwood? It goes on and on, even bleed over to the world of politics.
"As Governor of CA ... excited that we're guaranteed an historic playoff series between @MLB's two best teams -- the
@SFGiants and @Dodgers...One way or another a CA team is moving onto the next round! But as a native San Franciscan ... I may have a different opinion...#BeatLA," tweeted Gov. Gavin Newsom.
So it's not surprising the ticket resellers market was glowing red hot a day before the playoff series was set to begin.
Just how high have ticket prices climbed?
Standing room only tickets started at $142 on Seat Geek. They were even higher on Stubhub where standing room tickets behind the right field seats were commanding a hefty price tag of $168 - and there were only two left for sale on Thursday afternoon.
"Demand for the Giants-Dodgers series is historically high, especially for games in San Francisco," said Jesse Lawrence of TicketIQ, a reseller in an email to KPIX. "Currently, the overall series average list price on the secondary market is $501, which is easily the highest among the four remaining series."
On the team website, there were only there were only a handful of tickets left, ranging on price from $339 to $365 -- a relative bargain.
"Prior to the Dodgers clinching their spot in the series last night, tickets for Giants home games were averaging $460 on the secondary market, but have since risen 38% and are now up to a whopping $636," Lawrence said of the resellers market. "The cheapest ticket for each Giants home game is currently north of $250."
For the Hollywood and Silicon Valley tech -- price is no object crowd -- you could buy a premium field club seat nine rows behind home plate for $4,000 each. Dug Out Club seats were starting at $2,000 and seat behind the Dodgers dugout was going for $1,487.
In the rows near the Giants dugout, the cheapest tickets were going for a hefty $3,900 for the very few available.
