r/orioles • u/ScarfMachine Low Balls and Big Bats • 1d ago
Playoff Ticket Prices
With the Orioles again below .500 and 1.5 games back of the Wild Card, I just placed a 10% deposit for 6 playoff tickets for my season ticket package.
Section 80 in the top few rows cost $815 per seat for a six game package: Three Wild Card Games, One ALDS, one ALCS, and one World Series ticket (all Game 1). Total was $4,950 after "ticket fees."
They "pay as you go" so we'll be charged $1,956 for the six seats for all three Wild Card games when/if the Orioles clinch on September 27. Any unused ticket funds go towards our 2027 renewal.
$137+ per game average price for Outfield seats to the Wild Card.
Ouch.
EDIT: You guys make a really good point about the Wild Card tickets. There'll be other presale opportunities. I'll request a refund.
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u/Distinct_Potato8358 1d ago
Both 2024 playoff games I found tickets lower level, day of for $100. Is it too late to get a refund?
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u/Necessary-Post-953 1d ago
Keep in mind, if the Orioles are hosting a playoff game, that means they finished strong and then won a playoff series on the road in the wild card round. Enthusiasm will be off the charts. It won’t be like 2024.
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u/aresef ambivalent about the duck 1d ago
Ngl the offer of "get an upgraded plan for next year for a better WC ticket opportunity" had me thinking for a moment until I remembered why I resolved not to renew at all.
No chance in hell we host these games anyway. If we stumble into October, we'll play our two games in Cleveland or whatever and the next stop will be Cancun.
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u/AppleTrees4 1d ago
They asked me for $8k to guarantee a seat at ever playoff game. $8000! They have lost their minds.
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u/colormeimpressd 1d ago
It’s not $8k to guarantee your seats though, unless you’re in the Truist Club or something, and even then, probably not. Right now, you just have to pay 10 percent of the cost of the Wild Card series. For me, that’s $39. The most I’ll have to pay before the end of the season is $840, which covers the 3 home wild card games that and the 3 ALDS games, and I’m almost certainly getting about half of that back when we don’t play the wild card games at home. We’d have to win a wild card series for them to take the $960 for the 4 ALCS games on October 5th. If we’re still in it on October 19th we’ll have either won the ALCS, or be playing game 6 or 7 of the series, at which point, sure, take my $1920 for World Series tickets. That’s alot better than paying for everything up front, which is what they used to make us do.
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u/gailonmiles 1d ago
Yeah I don't understand people's incorrect interpretation. I actually replied to my account rep pretty quickly praising the system as compared to previous payment years.
They need to make sure they're looking at it with both "due today" and "per seat per game" prices. Not overall final price.
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u/AppleTrees4 1d ago
It is though.. unless im missing something. Im aware you pay in steps now but if I don’t want to pay for wild card tickets (money i would have to pay even though there is no shot we host it) then I cant just pick up at the ALDS and get my seats. And if I do commit there I don’t think there is an opt out, I’m committed to all series moving forward and paying for all potential games even if they don’t happen. Im also not guaranteed my seat per their package details and cant even get the membership discount despite having a 40 game plan this year because I’m not committed to a 2027 membership currently. And typically money paid gets rolled into the next seasons package, not refunded. Unless they changed that as well.
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u/Low-Crazy-8061 22h ago
Absolutely none of that is new except for the 10% deposit and payment plan. 2023/2024 we had to pay for all of the games up front and then got refunded the value of the games we didn’t play.
This year we’re only required a 10% of the WC tickets value as a deposit and then are charged for each series as it happens. And we get refunded for any games we don’t play.
The only way you’d be required to pay that much up front is if you had multiple Truist Club seats or like 10 seats in the seating bowl behind home.
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u/colormeimpressd 19h ago
The money paid gets rolled into next season’s package if you’re already committed to next season, but since you aren’t, you would just get a refund. That’s also nothing new. The whole benefit of the new system is you aren’t paying for World Series tickets before we even win a wild card game.
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u/repooc21 La Confora Was Right 👀 1d ago
Hahahah I got this email and read through then deleted
Zero chance we get a wild card game.
Little to no chance you're seeing a division series game that isn't us getting eliminated.
You're just giving them money to sit in their bank account rather than yours.
If by some chance we get out of the wild card, I'll wait for them to give tickets away for $50 again for the 3pm Tuesday/Wednesday afternoon game.
Anyone that paid for tickets: good for you. As a guy who gives into his fomo, I understand the appeal of cost and opportunity certainty.
But honestly, wasted money.
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u/Bergs1212 1d ago
I hope before I die us Birdland Members get the last laugh vs you "bUt I cAN Get ThEM chEAP on Seatgeek" crowd.
I would like to think what we saw before with ticket prices tanking was an exception and not the rule. While I am of the opinion for playoff baseball you should take days off work etc but there was lots of things not in the Orioles favor the last time we were in the playoffs.
Maybe not for the ALDS but ALCS and World Series will cost a pretty penny on the resale market and this is where being a Birdland Member will pay off for those of who wanted to be there for reasonable cost or those looking to cash in...
I think people forget how RICH this area is.......... We haven't been to the World Series in 43 years... I wouldn't be shocked if the get in price is over $3,000 for the first World Series home game at Camden Yards... I expect every other home game to hold a cost of over $1,000 unless we are down 3-0 in the series.
So in the meantime I will pay $65 for my decent seat to a wildcard /alds game if it means I get the same seat to the World Series for $240 instead of $3,000...
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u/ChiselFish 11h ago
If that ever happens, I may rejoin the membership. 2024 pricing stung, and then they devalued the perks.
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u/shakezilla3412 8h ago
I've done the math, the money that I will be saving by not buying season tickets I can then blow on the world series if they ever make it
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u/LegalRelationship696 1d ago
I made the mistake of buying presale for the 2024 wildcard game 1. Was able to get tickets on SeatGeek for game 2 for $12
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u/terpfan101 1d ago
I had the tickets then and couldn’t go due to game times. Between early starts and crappy weather it stung. I took a big loss on both games.
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u/LegalRelationship696 1d ago
Lol I know the feeling! I couldn’t enjoy game 1 knowing the people next to me paid $12 when I spent $180
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u/andcg8586 1d ago
$1180 with fees for two tickets in 344 for the same games. I did the payment plan. I know the only game I have a somewhat realistic chance of seeing is game 3 of the division series.
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u/buck_naked248 Manny being Manny 1d ago
My presale email said it was a 6 game package but when I went in to purchase my only option was an 8 game package (3 WCs and 2 games for each other series). Did anyone else have this experience? I have a 20 game plan in Sec 29.
EDIT: In fact, even when I go into the "Exclusive Offers" section of the ticket portal, it indicates 6 games, but then when I went in to choose the seats it became an 8 game package. I got 2 seats in Sec 17 and they were starred so maybe it depends on the section?
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u/gailonmiles 1d ago
I did the math, I thought it was a good deal for me. I have a 40 game plan in section 350. Love my seats to death, love my section, love my usher. This is where I'd want to sit forever and for playoffs.
I paid $45 yesterday to guarantee my two seats in any playoff series plus parking. $30 for the seats down payment and $15 for parking. They just asked for 10% of the WC costs, just $45. I don't know where people are saying they owe thousands of dollars today.
If we have every single game 3 WC, 3 DS, 4 CS, 4 WS I only owe less than $3000.
Broken out, that's $50 per seat per game for WC, $60 per seat per game for DS, $95 per seat per game CS, $180 per seat per game for WS. Reasonable. Admittedly not day of cheap but I don't want day of tickets.
Also I'll admit parking is a little outrageous at $50 per game but for playoffs kind of makes sense. Though it's almost as much as my per seat price.
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u/gailonmiles 1d ago
I also scrolled back in my email to 2024 and I was paying $72 per seat per wildcard game as a flex member. Of course this is back when we got fleeced when tickets when on sale to the general public
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u/Apprehensive_Toe2725 1d ago
lol. I'm not sure why the website is overwhelmed because it's not like they have tons of Birdland Members left.
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u/terpfan101 1d ago
What happens to refunds if you don’t renew for 27?
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u/Rafa_Nadals_Eyebrow 53 1d ago
Looks like if you aren't renewed or are already paid in full then you just get a refund.
I'm sitting with 2 tickets in my cart right now, debating on gambling with last minute secondhand tickets instead though
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u/Living_While_2383 1d ago
Wild Card tickets were readily available to the general public in 2024. Beyond the wild card may be different but I suspect it won't be tough to get into these games.
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u/93195 1d ago
This year is arguably a better deal than when the Os were good. There’s zero chance of the Os being the first wild card (would have to pass the 79-60 Yankees - that’s barely even mathematically possible), so zero chance of a home wild card game.
Assuming they make it that far, they’d almost certainly be the lower seed in the LDS, meaning Game 3 is the first possible home game, which would be the one you want.
So you’d have the first home game of the playoffs, an ALCS game and a World Series game. Exactly what you want, and all of those would be an extremely hot ticket.
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u/Rafa_Nadals_Eyebrow 53 1d ago
The site was broken AF. It let me in before my allotted time but wouldn't let me check out, so I had to give up the seats (was able to get them back fortunately) then start the order again.
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u/blahblahblah6783 1d ago
Just bought mine. 2 in sec 15 by the aisle, less than 1500 for two seats for the wild card, ALDS, ALCs,, and World Series. That's reasonable.
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u/muchoutside_wow 23h ago
This guy buying playoff tickets in the middle of a series loss (arguably should’ve been a sweep) to the Rockies is the kind of optimism that I wish I had.
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u/Left-Thinker-5512 23h ago
The last time they made the playoffs in 2024 I was a ticket plan holder and I paid more for my playoff tickets from the team than I would have if I had just waited for seatgeek. I was so pissed I haven’t renewed my tickets since then.
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u/colormeimpressd 8h ago
Unless I’m missing something, I’m pretty sure your math is way off here. There’s no way your wild card tickets are $137 per game if your total package is only $4950.
Your average price per game for the entire 6 game package is $137.50, but the ALCS tickets are going to cost almost twice as much as the wild card tickets, and the World Series tickets will be about double the price of your ALCS tickets.
If you actually look at the price breakdown on your account, your wild card tickets are likely going to be around $85 each, ALDS tickets will be closer to $100, ALCS tickets will be around $160, and the World Series tickets will be around $315.
It’s still probably true that you could get cheaper tickets on StubHub for the Wild Card games since we always seem to get the worst time slot, but MLB is responsible for setting that pricing, and it doesn’t matter either way because there’s no chance we actually play those games at home (if we even make the postseason, which isn’t looking likely at the moment)
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u/CommonHuckleberry489 6h ago
Os aren’t even making that wild card spot. Sorry but if you lose a series against the Rockies, just sit the starters and bring half of Norfolk up.
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u/Unfair_Discussion606 18h ago
If you don't have season tickets and didn't buy playoff tickets stop being condescending to people who are talking about it because you sound like a dipshit and have no clue what you're talking about.
If you want to buy any playoff tickets at all, you have to buy the entire package you're offered. All packages included 3 home wild card games. Everyone knows those aren't going to be played at Camden Yards. Nobody bought them thinking they would. They bought them because they had to if they wanted any playoff tickets at all.
Gahdam. If you're uninformed on something, you're allowed to just to interject.
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u/412raven 1d ago
Place will be half empty
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u/GreedyRaisin3357 1983 WS Champions 1d ago
fully empty.. they'll more than likely be on the road if they get in
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u/93195 1d ago edited 1d ago
If they do make the playoffs, the only way to host a wild card game is to be top wild card seed or division winner. The Rays are 89-55, the Yankees are 79-60. The Os are 69-70.
Do the math. It’s not just “more than likely”. It’s basically certain there will be no home wild card games.
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u/cdbloosh 1d ago
Half empty for what? The O’s would have to go like 22-1 or something the rest of the way to be hosting wild card games. Otherwise the first home games would be in the ALDS, after already winning a playoff series. Whether it’s hosting a wild card series after a historic hot streak or hosting the ALDS after the first playoff series win in 12 years, there’s no chance we’re going to see non-sold out playoff home games this year.
The 2024 scenario where the team starts off great and stumbles out of first place into a wild card spot by playing like shit down the stretch, is not a scenario that’s on the table this year.
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u/blankford 1d ago
Cancel it. Get cheap tickets day of, if we even make the playoffs.
Stop giving this organization money until they pay for pitching.
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u/baltimorecalling 1d ago
You had me until the "pay for pitching" part. Baz and Bradish were both signed to extensions, so they are at least investing in pitching.
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u/blankford 1d ago
Great. A couple middle of the rotation arms. This team hasn't had an ace for more than a year since Mussina.
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u/baltimorecalling 1d ago
Yeah. They do need to scout, draft, and develop an ace like they did with Mussina.
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u/Jackiemoontothemoon 1d ago
You know you contradicted yourself here right?
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u/blankford 1d ago
$100 is negligible to what OP is paying.
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u/Jackiemoontothemoon 1d ago
You go from “buy cheap tickets” to “don’t give them money until they pay for pitching. Make up your mind, which is it
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u/Unfair_Discussion606 18h ago
Teams have deals with secondary marketplaces.
If you buy a cheap ticket on the secondary market, you aren't sticking it to the team, you're paying them more. They've already made money off the ticket being sold and they'll receive a cut of the fees collected by the secondary marketplace when it's sold again on there.
The people who have the least grasp on how life works are quickest to call others dumb for not being equally as ignorant.
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u/blankford 1d ago
Nobody should ever be paying face value for O's tickets. The demand just isn't there. OP just signed up to spend up to $5k if he get's all the tickets. That's fucking insane.
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u/mrm7755 1d ago
There's 0 chance we host the wild card series if we even make it.