Crowning Achievement: Royals ALDS Game 3 Boasts Most Expensive Ticket Prices

Sunday's Game 3 of the Royals-Angels ALDS, the first game of the series played at Kauffman Stadium, is "the most expensive playoff game" in the upcoming round, according StubHub data cited by Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. The "average price of a ticket for Game 3" as of yesterday afternoon "sold for $211, and only kept climbing." A standing-room ticket "could be had for $145" at 8:00am ET yesterday. But 12 hours later, the "cheapest standing room ticket was $70 more." No other division series game "currently has a get-in price of over $100." The "average asking price on the resale market for a ticket to Game 3 is now $422.57." Data from ticket-tracking site TiqIQ shows that this figure "is the highest average asking price for a division series game since the company began tracking the ticket market" in '10. Texas-based ticket brokerage The Ticket Experience co-Owner Patrick Ryan, whose company is one of the Royals' largest accounts, said that "in his eight years of selling tickets he has never seen the rise in demand that he has for the Royals" (ESPN.com, 10/1).

FOR THE BIRDS: As the Orioles open their ALDS against the Tigers today, club officials report both tickets and sponsorship sales are significantly ahead of the team’s last playoff appearance in '12. Helped by the second-most wins in MLB this season and new deals for '15 already from the likes of  Weber Sauces & Seasonings and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, sponsorship revenues have increased three times from the last time the Orioles were in the playoffs, according to Orioles VP/Corporate Partnerships Marco Gentile. Deposits on '15 season tickets, through which playoff tickets can be obtained, have seen similar growth. The team last month adopted a "We Won't Stop" playoff thematic, which the team has used on merchandise as a battle cry at a dozen of pre-playoff fan rallies, separately sponsored by Miller Lite, Corona, and Budweiser (Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large).