ST. LOUIS — As Albert Pujols inches closer to 700 career home runs, ticket prices for upcoming games at Busch Stadium are climbing, too.
Fans purchasing tickets with hopes to see Pujols — who currently has 697 career home runs — become the fourth member of Major League Baseball's 700 home run club can expect to pay more to get inside Busch Stadium. As Pujols has added to his home run total this month, ticket prices have started to increase on the secondary market, with one online ticket marketplace saying the median ticket price for remaining regular season games at Busch Stadium has soared 62% in the past 10 days.
Since Sept. 4, when Pujols hit career home run No. 695, Chicago-based ticket marketplace Vivid Seats says the median price for tickets to Cardinals home games listed on its platform increased from $97 to $157. On Vivid Seats, the upcoming game with the biggest increase in prices is Saturday evening’s game, which is the second game of a doubleheader, with the median ticket price going up from $105 Sept. 4 to $216.
The uptick in prices on the secondary market comes as a Cardinals spokesman said only a limited amount of tickets are still available for sale through the team for its games during the current home stand, which wraps Sunday. The Cardinals are expecting Busch Stadium to be filled at full capacity for the remaining games this week against the Brewers and Reds.
During this week’s home stand, the Cardinals are slated to eclipse attendance of 3 million fans at Busch Stadium this season, pacing above the Cardinals’ initial projections of 2.75 million fans this season.
As of Wednesday, the Cardinals this season have drawn 2.9 million fans to Busch Stadium, with nine home games remaining. Except for the pandemic-impacted season of 2020 and 2021, the Cardinals have reached the 3 million figure each year dating back to 2003.
Read the rest of the story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
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