Ticket prices throughout the playoffs

With the Royals making the playoffs for the first time in roughly 2,029 years, fans were constantly scrambling to find well-priced tickets. I was one of them--constantly worrying about the supply and demand of tickets, trying to access the Royals website, signing up for the random chance to be selected by the Royals for tickets, checking secondary markets, etc. Now that it's over, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the playoff ticket prices and how they rose and fell throughout the playoffs. You know, for future playoff runs. That way, we know when to buy! Advantage, us!

The data I will present comes from the generous people of TickPick. TickPick is an innovative ticket marketplace dedicated to saving fans money on tickets to their favorite events. TickPick is different because in contrast to other secondary markets, the buyer (that's us) has some negotiating power. Anyway, as a disclaimer, I am receiving no compensation. There have been no deals made. TickPick hasn't asked me to do anything in return for the data. TickPick just contacted me and asked if I was interested in seeing their ticket price data, which I definitely was. Like I said, these data can be both interesting on its own and illustrative for future playoff ticket buying experiences, because the Royals are about to go 15 of the next 20 seasons with playoffs.

The ticket price data start on 9/25. For reference, the Royals clinched their playoff spot on 9/26, and the Royals and Athletics kicked off the postseason on 9/30 with that Wild Card game. The ALDS games took place on 10/2, 10/3, and 10/5. 10/5 was the Royals home game. When you see a single price on a day, that price reflects the average price of all home games remaining in the series. So, for example, the average price of $263 on 9/25 for ALDS tickets is for both games 3 and 4. Here are the ALDS ticket price data.

There was a small increase the day after the Royals clinched, but on 9/29 and 9/30, ticket prices flew up for the ALDS. The Royals had not yet won the Wild Card game, so perhaps the lull in games played tricks on people's minds. People had too much time to think. Or, people who missed out on Wild Card tickets were snatching up ALDS tickets, both hoping the Royals to win and fearing missing out. Perhaps the pent up demand was really that high. After the Royals won the Wild Card game, ticket prices fell back down and remained somewhat stable. There was a decrease the day of the game as ticket sellers looked to unload tickets so as not to lose money on them.

Angels fans hardly cared.

Here is the ALCS data.

There was another big leap on 9/29, which was a Monday. Prices peaked on 10/5, the day the Royals clinched their trip to the ALCS. In the time between the ALDS and the ALCS, ticket prices fell dramatically. The games took place on 10/10, 10/11, 10/13 (postponed), 10/14, and 10/15. Ticket prices continued to drop throughout the series. The big jump in Orioles' ticket prices was on 10/2, which was the first day of the ALDS for them. They rocked Detroit 12-3.

Here is the World Series data.

The World Series games took place from 10/21-10/29. Prices peaked for the Royals on 10/7, which was between the ALDS and ALCS. People probably had thoughts of, "It's happening?!!" mulling around in their heads. Prices dropped through the ALCS as people bought tickets for those instead of the World Series. After the Royals won the ALCS, ticket prices increased for a day. Prices then dropped after 10/16 until they hit bottom on 10/19, which was a Sunday (and the day I bought tickets!). In the days leading up to the World Series, prices rose again and didn't fall until after the Royals lost. Ticket prices fell for Game 7 compared to Game 6. Maybe people were out of money.

Here are the Royals ticket prices for the 3 series.

Even the lowest average ticket price for the World Series never fell below an average price for the ALDS or ALCS.

For funsies, here are the ticket prices for all the other series.