Series ticket prices are rising for the first Dodgers-Yankees game since 1981

Ticket prices for the World Series, which begins Friday in Los Angeles, have doubled since last year and quadrupled since 2002.

According to Vivid Seats, the cheapest ticket price for Game 1 at Dodger Stadium is $1,302, rising to $1,443 for Game 2, also at the home of the National League Champions.

But ticket prices for the next three games — all scheduled at Yankee Stadium — are 40 percent higher than any other game in LA

The first Fall Classic meeting between the Dodgers and Yankees since 1981 features potentially most valuable players Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, a host of other All-Stars and two of the three clubs with payrolls exceeding $300 million.

Roster resourceIn the Major League payroll rankings, the New York Mets are first at $335 million, followed by the Dodgers at $325 million and the Yankees at $302 million.

Los Angeles’ payroll would be significantly higher had Shohei Ohtani not agreed, in his first year as the team’s designated hitter, to up to $2 million from the record 10-year, $700 million contract he last signed as a free agent US dollars per year to be deferred in December.

The lowest ticket prices this year are twice the $685 average for the 2023 World Series, which featured two wild-card teams in the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers, and four times higher than the 2022 prices According to the ticket sales site StubHub, the participants in the final round were the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies.

When the Yankees and Dodgers met in the 1981 World Series, an upper deck seat at Yankee Stadium sold for $20 for $80 for the Fall Classic, according to The New York Times.

And in 1949, when the Dodgers were still based in Brooklyn, four World Series tickets could be had for $70 to $100, the newspaper reported.

Since then, baseball economics have changed radically.

After labor organizer Marvin Miller took over as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1966, players achieved tremendous success in contract negotiations through binding arbitration and free agency, which allowed athletes to sell themselves to the highest bidder after six years of service to their original teams .

Hank Aaron, the home run king of his career from 1974 to 2001, had just $2 in his pocket when he left his home in Mobile, Alabama, to play for the fast-paced Indianapolis Clowns.

He later signed with the Boston Braves after that team offered him $50 more than the New York Giants.

Aaron’s top salary was $240,000 – a whopping half a million less than today’s minimum salary, which was reached through collective bargaining between players and owners.