Cubs Playoff Tickets are Crazy Expensive, Here’s How to Get Them for (a Little) Less
If current trends hold, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t, the Cubs will host the three most expensive division round games in MLB history. Last year’s NLDS Game 3 against the Cardinals is the current record-holder, with an average ticket price of $637.15. This year’s Game 1 average of $826.20 is already blowing that away, with Game 2 running a full Benjamin higher at $926.45. Game 5, which isn’t even guaranteed, comes in at $992.59.
Those are just the average costs according to TicketIQ, but here’s some more from the Benzinga article regarding baseline costs for the games in question:
If you plan to just to get past the gates at Wrigley during this year’s NLDS, expect to pay no less than $300 for a seat through the resale market. As it currently stands, both Games 1 and 2 own a “get-in,” or cheapest available ticket, price of $355. Those seats are listed in Section 534 near the right field foul pole. Should the series extend to a decisive Game 5 back in Chicago, tickets are currently priced at $445 each.
Here’s the thing, though: that info is way wrong. A quick look at TicketLodge.com (obligatory notice that they’re a CI legacy partner) reveals SRO tickets from $170 and 500-level seats for less than $250. And there are plenty of 200-level seats from $249-300 (more than $100 less than what the article says the upper deck spots are going for). But you wanna know what’s even better? Okay, lean in close because I don’t want everyone to hear this:
Cubs Insider readers get a discount on those prices with the code CUBSINSIDER.
As you’re probably aware, there are service and processing fees that are going to jack the prices up a little bit. For instance, a pair of those $170 SRO seats will run you $409.15 total. But your CI discount will save you enough on that purchase to grab two Green Lines at the game, one for you and one for me. Or both for me, either way.
Ticket Lodge even has Game 5 tickets starting at $288, or about $70 cheaper than what Benzinga tried to tell you they’d be. Your cost on a pair of those seats in Section 514, Row 9 would normally run right around $695, but the discount gives them to you for just under $666. It’s so good, it’s evil.
If it’s NLCS ducats you desire, they’ve got those too. It’s gonna run you at least $523 a pop to get in the door for Game 1, and there’s only one set of those bad boys left. The cost jumps to over $750 from that point, so I’d recommend finding a black market kidney clinic here shortly. For the sake of consistency, I will tell you that two of those seats would run you $1800 before discount and about $1724 after.
Then you’ve got your World Series tickets, which currently start at $3,325 for Section 536 and run as high as $17,575 (which would run $41,492 for two, but that’s before a $1,757.50 discount) for infield club boxes. Oof.
The moral of the story here is that it’s not cheap to get into Wrigley to see the Cubs in the playoffs if you don’t have the opportunity to buy face-value tickets. So for those of you who are planning to go and will need to hit the secondary market to make it happen, make sure to visit TicketLodge.com (or click the ad on the main page of our full site) and use the code CUBSINSIDER to save a few bucks.
As if you needed any more incentive than the potential to save some cashola, I’m offering a free Cubs Insider shirt or hat of your choice ($30 limit) to the first two people who buy through Ticket Lodge and provide proof of purchase. Come to think of it, that might be a disincentive. But at least you’ll know that you cost me money.
PS — Ticket Lodge also offers tons of concert and theater (Hamilton, anyone?) tickets, not to mention other college and professional sports. So, you know, check ’em out.