Baseball Tickets Become Affordable Again As Recession Hits Scalpers

Following up on yesterday’s roundup of recession-related deals, here is an article from Forbes on how scalpers, season ticket holders, and teams themselves are cutting deals on baseball tickets, with below-cost tickets, BOGO deals, and cheap food.

Even StubHub has some cheap tickets, with tickets to some Western and Central Division games going for less than half face value. Of course, if you’re trying to go to a tiny, historic stadium like Wrigley or Fenway, you’re not going to have much luck (although we’ve always been able to get into Fenway for relatively cheap by scanning craigslist the day of the game).

Besides checking out these deals, we have two more tips for baseball fans looking to save money:

Growing up in between the Red Sox, Yankees, and Mets, we were often unable to convince our family to go see any of these teams because of all the supplemental expenses like parking, food, and drinks (as a result, we caught quite a few Bridgeport Bluefish games). When we moved to DC, we were thrilled to learn that both the Orioles and Nationals let fans bring in their own food and (non-alcoholic) drink, which cuts down on costs significantly. We wonder how many other stadiums do this. Update: Apparently Fenway and Yankee Stadium, as well as several other stadiums, allow this, so it turns out our parents were just making excuses not to drive up to Boston.

Check out the minor or independent leagues. This is a good way to see up and coming players, current stars rehabbing from injuries, and has beens. We mentioned the Bridgeport Bluefish before: we watched them play the Long Island Ducks a few years ago and were amazed to see John Rocker on the mound.

(Photo: Jeremy ES)

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