Cubs Trail Only Red Sox as Most Expensive Fan Experience in Baseball
The Cubs may be spending less on their payroll, but Cubs fans aren’t getting a commensurate discount on a trip to Wrigley Field. According to The Hustle, only the Red Sox offer a more expensive experience for a family of four to attend a ballgame. Between tickets, hot dogs, beers, sodas, and parking, it costs just under $313 to watch the Cubs play .380 baseball.
And guess what? The cost isn’t going down after the trade deadline.
Only three teams have a cost of more than $300, with the Sawx at $324.37 and the Yankees at $302.86, and less than half the league is over $200 in total. Interestingly enough, the woeful Athletics are among that group. The Diamondbacks are easily the cheapest experience in MLB at just over $126, nearly $200 less than the Cubs. Check out the chart below for more specifics.
$204.76: average cost for a family of 4 to attend a MLB game, via @TheHustle: pic.twitter.com/w7ehdW6DqO
— Mark J. Burns (@markjburns88) July 20, 2022
Bear in mind, however, that these are taking into account the face value of tickets, which is not what you’re going to have to pay if you wait and buy on the secondary market. Parking around Wrigley is still going to cost you over $25 on average and you can’t buy resale concessions through StubHub, plus you figure most people are getting more than just one dog and one beverage over the course of three hours.
That said, I’d love to know where the hell they got some of these beer prices. Maybe there’s a special in Denver where they’ve got a $3 draft or perhaps the Angels only charge $4.50 when Shohei Ohtani strikes out the side or something. Whatever the case, it might be worth a road trip to some of these places just to drink. The Cubs at $10.49 feels a little closer to the truth.
Even if it goes without saying because I’ve already said it several times, it’s nothing short of disgraceful that Cubs ownership is not rewarding these premium prices with a premium product. There should be no such thing as a retool or rebuild unless costs are reflective of the process as well, though I understand why such a tack will never be taken.
It’s just incredibly disingenuous for the team to charge this much and then have the temerity to claim they’re allocating every surplus dollar into baseball operations. Unless you buy that they’re rolling over unused payroll budget (which is a myth) to use when the time is right. Whatever, I’m just repeating myself again.
