If you're not one of those fortunate Phillies fans who received an email about buying tickets directly from the organization, you may be out of luck for attending the World Series. Ticket prices on the secondary market are wild with the average ticket costing upwards of $3,000, but those numbers aren't deterring some hardcore Phils fans.
Alexander Colvin from Runnemede, NJ, knows this World Series is a special moment in the history of Philadelphia sports and isn't missing it.
"I wanted to spend under $1,000 but the seat is 100 level and going back to knowing people that got to go in 2008, I just felt like it’s something I had to do," Colvin said about jumping into the deep end for to see the Phillies play in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday at Citizens Bank Park.
Colvin, who paid $1,399 for a seat on Gametime, was 12 when the Phillies won the World Series in 2008. He never had a chance to see the Fightins play in the World Series in '08 or 2009, so "it's been a dream" to see the team on this type of national stage.
"When they first got in and every series after I said I was going to go to a game and just didn’t get around to it, but I don’t want to look back and wish I went," Colvin continued. "I just think it’s amazing that the whole country is watching a game being played in South Philly. The Super Bowl likely isn’t being played here, and the Sixers can’t seem to get out of the second round. This team seems to have caught lightning in a bottle, who knows when they’ll be back?"
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A huge issue with these secondary ticket marketplaces is the amount of fees that are tacked on beyond the ticket price itself. Connor Sodak from Point Breeze bought tickets that were $810 each in the 400 level for Game 3, but paid $350-$400 on fees alone for the pair of seats.
"Theoretically money wasn’t going to be an issue, but after seeing the initial prices, figured I’d wait until they dropped under $1,000 to pull the trigger," Sodak said. "With the run this teams been on, it would’ve been a crime to miss out on seeing this kind of magic in person, especially after seeing how electric the crowd was all NLCS. Being a part of history is priceless and you never know when they’re going to get back here again. I have been coming to CBP since I was 10 and needed to get a World Series game in there."
No one wants to have to pay this much to see their favorite squad play for the championship, but Sodak was determined and his heart was behind this.
Sodak's father passed away in December. That life event stayed with him when he decided to jump on tickets. "I figured he wouldn’t want me to miss this," he said about his dad. "Money's temporary. Memories are forever."
The connection sports build in this city between friends, family and the community as a whole cannot be undersold.
Another Phillies fan, who asked to not be named for fear that his fiancé would find out how much he paid for this, found himself in a pickle with tickets as if he was jammed up on the base path.
"I started seeing that people got the [Phillies ticket lottery opportunity] email on Twitter. I panicked and bought the cheapest tickets Gametime had," this fan said, paying $955 each for two tickets. "I assumed the emails went out all at once. I figured prices were about to sky rocket as people realized they didn’t get picked in the lottery. I figured $955 will be nothing if it happens to be a clincher or a wild game to extend the series.
"I get home an hour later, prices went down by $200 and I got the email that I got picked for the lottery, so now I’m sitting on two standing room only tickets at $140 each and $1900 worth of 400 section tickets that may lose value!"
Being down two grand sounds pretty terrifying. I paid almost $300 for a seat for Game 3 of the NLDS and was a tad nervous to tell my own fiancé about it. Having four total tickets at your disposal for the World Series is a decent silver lining though.
No one said loving your favorite team would be easy, or at least easy on your pockets. If you put up the big bucks for seats to see the Phillies play at home in the World Series, I have a feeling you won't regret the price once you're sitting in your seat and hear public address announcer Dan Baker say that Bryce Harper is walking to the plate. It was a long 13-year wait to get to this point. It'll be worth it. As Colvin said, who knows when they'll get back?
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