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Cubs raising ticket prices nearly 20 percent after World Series win
What’s the cost of winning? No, this isn’t some loaded philosophical question about the attributes one needs to reach the pinnacle of performance, or the sacrifices made to make it to the top. We’re talking in a literal sense. Can you put a dollar value on winning?
Of course you can, especially when it comes to baseball. Following their World Series win, the Chicago Cubs are going to increase season ticket prices by nearly 20 percent next season, according to Jon Greenberg of The Athletic.
The biggest increases will come in the most expensive areas of the park:
The biggest price jump is in the best seating section in the park, club box infield. Those seats will jump around 31 percent to $154.13. Club box outfield seats are spiking 29.8 percent to $115.87. Field box infield seats are up 20 percent ($112) and field box outfield seats are up 28.8 percent ($89.73). Those four, well-attended sections close to the field make up almost 11,000 seats.
The exact figure of the average increase is 19.5 percent. The average single game ticket will be about $66, which is in line with what fans of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox pay per game. As Greenberg notes, that figure could make the Cubs the most expensive ticket in baseball.
While it seems like a eye-popping number, it shouldn’t come as a major surprise. The Cubs have steadily increased season ticket prices over the past few seasons. The club raised prices by an average of 10.4 percent prior to last year, according to The Athletic.
It’s also in line with the last team to win a championship in Chicago. The Blackhawks increased season ticket prices 18.4 percent after winning the Stanley Cup in 2011.
Factor in inflation and add in the fact that this is the Cubs, and you can see how a 20 percent increase isn’t completely out of line, even if it seems excessive.
If the team’s postseason run was any indication, fans should be more than willing to pay the price. The Cubs broke a ton of records for ticket prices in the postseason, according to Stubhub. One fan even dropped close to $50,000 on two tickets to Game 7. Cubs fans are … uh … we’ll go with passionate.
Because of that, the Cubs could have gone even higher with their season ticket demands and not seen a drop-off in renewals. The team always sells well, even during lean years. Now that the Cubs are excellent, and coming off their first World Series win in over 100 years, even more fans will be lining up to buy tickets for 2017.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
