Baseball fans showed up to the first two World Series games with very deep pockets, a trend that is likely to continue until a new winning team is crowned.
The opening weekend of the World Series brought thousands of baseball fans to North Texas, many of whom were not shy about dropping big bucks on the experience.
After adding up the price of tickets, airfare, accommodations, transportation, food and beverages, merchandise, and entertainment, the total cost per out-of-towner attending a game — as previously reported by The Dallas Express — was in the thousands.
Arizona resident Alec Klemens said he was one of those big-ticket spenders.
After following the Texas Rangers all season, Klemens said he felt compelled to fly down to show support for his team.
“I came out here to support the Rangers,” he told NBC 5 DFW. “I got the tickets on StubHub, but the issue was getting airline flights, so we were actually on standby coming from Phoenix to Dallas.”
As a 2023 World Series attendee, Klemens said he had to drop an enormous amount of money to make the experience a reality.
“I’m probably realistically $20,000 deep in this so far between hotels, good tickets, drinks, and food — but it’s worth every single penny,” he said, per NBC 5.
While the World Series is certainly expensive for out-of-state attendees, the cost is not much better for residents of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to Arlington local Ray Henson.
Henson told The Dallas Express that decent seats for him and his wife during Saturday’s game cost around $1,900.
“And that was the price without factoring in parking, food, and merchandise,” he said.
While Henson and his wife were disappointed to see the Rangers lose on Saturday, he told The Dallas Express, “The experience was worth every penny.”
For Arizona Diamondbacks fan Trace Thompson, experiencing the World Series over the weekend was an opportunity she just could not pass up.
Thompson explained that it was a bit chaotic waiting on tickets for the game and ensuring flights and hotel rooms were properly booked, but in the end, she said it was entirely worth it.
“It’s a lifetime type of deal, and you never know if you’re going to be there again, so we are taking the opportunity,” Thompson said, per NBC 5.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau projects each game of the World Series to generate between $12 and $14 million in direct spending. This includes money spent on accommodations, rental cars, rideshare services, airfare, entertainment, food and beverage, and merchandise.
Since the World Series is a major event that can draw in thousands of visitors from in-state and beyond, fans should expect “prices to spike and hotels to book up,” according to Paul Vaughn, senior vice president of Source Strategies, a San Antonio-based firm that tracks hotel analytics, reported The Dallas Morning News.
