The Josh Hamilton Tax?

I understand one part of this, but I’m not sure I understand the other:

The average ticket price to the Major League Baseball All-Star game in St. Louis is down more than 50 percent from last year, while the ticket price to the Home Run Derby is up more than 9 percent.

The average ticket to the All-Star game July 14 is $679, down from $1,460 last year when the game was played in New York, according to RazorGator.com, a ticket market site. The average ticket price to the July 13 derby, where the league’s top hitters square off to determine who can hit the most home runs, is $491 this year, up from $449 last year.

New York is obviously a different place than St. Louis so I understand the ticket price dropping, but I would have expected to see a decline in the Derby ticket prices too.

Did Josh Hamilton’s display from last year make it a much bigger event, or are people In St. Louis just entertained by different things?


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Jason @ IIATMS
14 years ago

Maybe it’s just to see Pujols tee off?

Perhaps StL should offer a “batting practice only” ticket….

lar
14 years ago

I suspect people in St Louis are eagerly awaiting the HR Derby so they can watch hometown God Albert Pujols go crazy. New York may not have had that same kind of rooting interest in anybody last year (at least, not to the extent of “Albert Pujols in St Louis”).

Kenny
14 years ago

These numbers are meaningless.

The tickets are sold in strips that people have to buy.  How they allocate the massive price between the several events included is PR, not economics.

Alex K
14 years ago

I got tickets to just the HR derby last year from MLB.  So you don’t have to buy a strip or package to see the HR derby.

Alex Poterack
14 years ago

Also, I suspect this is the secondhand price for the tickets, not the printed price, which is a much truer reflection of the market.

Alex
14 years ago

I’m sure this has at least something to do with Pujols – no Yankees participated last year, and I imagine the ticket would have been hotter if ARod had been in it.

Chris
14 years ago

Well I’d like to think Jason…whoops I mean Justin Morneau winning the derby is what people will remember from last year’s derby 😀

Millsy
14 years ago

The All-Star game is a waste of time.  I always watch the Derby on TV.  I never watch the All Star game.  I wouldn’t pay in excess of $400 for either ticket, but I’d pay more for the Derby.  Maybe people are changing their preferences toward the game and going for something more novel like the derby?

brian
14 years ago

Seems like we should be looking at prices from the last few years rather than just comparing prices with the oh-so-nostalgic last ASG in Yankee Stadium.

It should be noted that this HR Derby with feature Pujols as well as St. Louis native Ryan Howard.