Prices For Yankees vs Dodgers Tickets Are Sky High

The New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers are one of baseball’s oldest rivalries, with roots dating back to the days when the teams shared the city of New York. Even with both teams performing slightly under par, and well under their pay grade, this series still has mass appeal, even to the casual baseball fan. The two teams have already started sparring, with the two team’s Twitter accounts joining in the mix. With 11 World Series match-ups between them, this is sure to be an eventful series.

Two of baseball’s most storied teams have never shied away from big money deals. In 2012, after Magic Johnson took over, the Dodgers went on a bit of spending spree that continued into this season. With $216,302,909 on the books for 2013, they're now second only to the Yankees ($228,995,945) in total payroll. With all of their issues with injuries this season (Jeter, Rodriguez, Teixeira) the Yankees’ spending hasn't paid off considering the players that take up most of that money haven't been able to get on the field for much of this season. Add to that the whole A-Rod steroid controversy and it's been quite a disappointing season in the Bronx. Currently, the Yankees sit at just five games over .500 (55-50), 4th place in the American League East, and 7.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees won’t go down quietly, however, and with the recent acquisition of Alfonso Soriano they’re looking to make some moves in the division and wild card races. Sori capped off his first week back in the Bronx by going 4-5 with a walk-off single in Sunday's dramatic win against the Rays. It was also Derek Jeter's first game back from his most recent DL stint, and on the first pitch he saw homered to right-center field. Needless to say, for everyone in Pinstripes it was good to have the Captain back.

"[Jeter's] presence just makes it different. It is hard to put your finger on how exactly why, but he is a winner, which is the bottom line to me." Said Girardi on the return of Derek Jeter.

With an equally expensive roster, the Dodgers also stumbled out of the gate. But after a recent surge winning 9 of their last 10 games,they now find themselves sitting pretty atop the National League West. Rookie phenom Yasiel Puig has dominated headlines this season, but he’s not the only one producing. Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez are also having excellent seasons, and they have one of better pitching staffs in the NL. Speaking of which, Don Mattingly has juggled around his rotation for the series, putting Zach Greinke and Clayton Kershaw in line to take the mound for the Dodgers in the series against Andy Pettitte and Hiroki Kuroda.

While the Yankees are always a big draw on the road, the demand for this series is understandably even higher. Currently, the series average for this one is $145 per ticket, 18% above the road average for Yankees tickets this season and 123% higher than the Dodgers home average. In fact, tickets for this series are the most expensive tickets at Dodger Stadium over the last three seasons.

Game one’s ticket average sits right around the $150 mark, 130% above season average price of $65 for Dodgers tickets at home this season. Clearly, the historic rivalry coupled with all the recent drama has made this game quite the hot ticket. Game two features an even more impressive pitching matchup of Hiroki Kuroda and Clayton Kershaw. Both pitchers are 10-6 on the year, and currently are sporting ERA's under 3.00 (Kershaw's is under 2.00). Surprisingly, despite the better pitching matchup of the two games, tickets are slightly lower than game 1 prices. Currently, the average price is $142, with a get-in price of $29.

For the best deals on Dodgers vs Yankees tickets, or any other MLB tickets, always remember to visit TicketIQ.com.