Strasburg's Second Start and Average Ticket Prices

Last week, leading up to Strasburg’s first start, we looked at the ticket data which showed a huge jump in prices for his debut. Strasburg somehow lived up to and even exceeded enormous expectations by pitching 7 innings of 4-hit ball, giving up 2 runs and striking out an incredible 14 batters, which hasn’t ever been done by some of the top pitchers in baseball, including Chris Carpenter and CC Sabathia. The following day, sportswriters everywhere expressed their excitement in numerous articles about Strasburg’s greatness, with one declaring Strasburg is already the best pitcher ever.

We at SeatGeek decided it would be interesting to look at how Strasburg’s next start on Sunday in Cleveland is affecting ticket prices there. It is common for a top prospect to get his teams fans excited but much more rare for a top prospect to get other teams fans excited. However, the data is showing that Strasburg has done exactly that. Below is a graph comparing average ticket prices for the Indians this season and for the two Nationals-Indians games leading up to Strasburg’s start to his start on Sunday.

• There is a 22.2% increase for the Strasburg start over the season average at Cleveland.
• The average transaction price for Stasburg’s start is $14.98 higher than Friday’s Indians-Nationals game and $7.72 higher than Saturday’s Indians-Nationals game.
• On June 9th, the day after Strasburg’s debut, 41% of secondary market tickets for the Strasburg start against the Indians were sold.
• Since June 1st, when Strasburg was first officially announced to debut on June 8th, 69% of secondary market tickets for Strasburg’s second start against the Indians have been sold.

People are already plotting out his starts for the coming weeks and months in hopes of getting tickets to see the pitching phenom. Only time will tell if Strasburg is able to live up to the hype but he sure is off to a great start.

This article is also featured on SeatGeek Sports Blog