June 22, 2012
With interleague play coming to an end for the 2012 season, we wanted to see how much each division is paying to see games against teams in the opposing league’s counterpart (AL East vs NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central and AL West vs. NL West). As you can see in the image above, the AL East vs. NL East matchups lead the way with the highest ticket prices, mainly of due to the usually highly anticipated Subway Series, as well as the fact that both East divisions include some of the league’s biggest road draws (Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies).
For the most part, however, the impact of these interleague series on ticket prices is a negative one. While prices in the chart fall pretty closely with the overall season averages in each division, each interleague average is lower than that division’s season-wide average:
- AL East: $97 (14% higher than divisional interleague matchups)
- AL Central: $69 (3% higher)
- AL West: $72 (6% higher)
- NL East: $89 (2% higher)
- NL Central: $61 (13% higher)
- NL West: $64 (23% higher)
One easy conclusion is that interleague play has lost its luster and fans are just not that interested. For more evidence you need look no further than the most highly anticipated interleague series, the Subway Series, where ticket prices have fallen in each of the last three years. In 2010 the average Subway Series ticket cost $203, in 2011 that number had dropped to $170 (-16%), and this year it has fallen to $147 (-28%).
The league-wide interleague averages compared to the league-wide regular season averages also back up this conclusion:
- AL: Overall: $79 / Interleague: $75 (-5%)
- NL: Overall: $70 / Interleague: $61 (-13%)
For fans that enjoy their interleague baseball this is very good news, especially with the addition of more interleague play coming next season. More games means more tickets and that means more affordable prices for you.
If you’d like to buy tickets for any of this season’s remaining interleague games, click on the view tickets button below.
