Tickets for Field of Dreams game selling for more than $1,000 on secondary market

Mike Bates of Cedar Rapids could’ve gone to Dyersville for Thursday’s Field of Dreams game.

Instead, he almost instantly made more than $1,200.

Bates is one of the many people selling tickets for Thursday’s Field of Dreams game between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees at prices often surpassing $1,000 on the secondary market.

“They were too expensive to really justify going to the game,” Bates said. “And then the prices were too out of control to justify not selling them.”

It is the most expensive regular-season MLB game in history, according to the secondary ticket marketplace TickPick. The average ticket price on the site is $1,415.

Prices varied on StubHub from $725 to nearly $7,000 before the added fees, as of Tuesday afternoon. After fees, prices ranged from almost $896 to $8,635.

Want an aisle seat? That costs at least $1,000 before StubHub’s added fees.

SeatGeek’s prices were slightly lower. The cheapest seats, as of Tuesday afternoon, cost $654 before fees and $834 after fees for seats similar to what Bates bought.

For two tickets, he paid $771, including tax.

“I mean, they’re not even good seats,” Bates said. “They’re down the left-field line in the bleachers. The bleachers don’t even have backs on them.”

He wasn’t surprised by the hefty price tag, though.

“The big speech from James Earl Jones about the Kinsella farm is that people would have to pay $20 per person,” Bates said. “It would have been cute and some neat synergy for Major League Baseball to do that. But the (commissioner) Rob Manfred era is about wringing as many dollars out of as many people as he possibly can.”

It’s a stark contrast from ticket prices for the White Sox’s previous game in Minnesota.

The White Sox-Twins game on Wednesday has tickets as cheap as $7 on StubHub and $10 on SeatGeek.

Someone could take a nonstop flight from Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis on Delta Air Lines, buy tickets off one of the secondary ticket sites and still pay less than going to Thursday’s game, based on prices listed Tuesday.

The $834 for a ticket on SeatGeek could have paid for 55 tickets to Cedar Rapids Kernels games in the nicest seating area.

For those still looking to experience the Field of Dreams game without the four-figure price tag, the state tourism office is sponsoring a “Beyond the Game” festival that will have live music, food vendors and other entertainment.

Gazette reporter Jeff Johnson contributed to this report.

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