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No matter the Chicago Cubs’ record or their World Series prospects, hundreds of thousands of people will flock to Wrigley Field every year to watch the boys in blue play (hence the exorbitant $500 tickets ). If you want to catch a game without dropping a wad of cash, you’ll need the right scouting report (as in, this one) to help field the best deal. Consider us the cork in your bat, or the steroids in your biceps. Here are three simple rules to avoid striking out on your next trip to see the Cubbies.
Do your homework
Our first rule to finding a good ticket deal is research, research, research. Everyone from licensed brokers (e.g. Coast to Coast Tickets LLC) to the Cubs themselves to online marketplace sellers (like Ace Ticket Worldwide Inc.) wants to profit from your baseball fever. Lars Geary, owner of licensed ticket broker Tickets321.com, has sold Cubs tickets for 13 years, and he says getting into Wrigley is a lot like getting a tux – you want to shop around for the right fit. Compare prices, and remember to factor in extra fees like shipping and service charges. Trolling for deals online could also pay off with tickets that are as much as 30 percent cheaper than the competition’s, Geary says.
But if you don’t have this kind of time or foresight, the alternative is easy enough. Take a deep breath and look around Wrigley Field for those men and women selling tickets on the streets. That’s right: Find a scalper.
Yes, scalpers get a bad rap, but most of them won’t lure you into a dark alley and steal your kidney. There are real risks to purchasing scalped tickets, though. Some vendors sell counterfeit tickets, which have become more difficult to spot since many printable versions can be copied and sold again and again, Geary says. But that’s a chance you take with licensed brokers, too. The difference is they will offer refunds or replacement tickets to jilted customers. Scalpers won’t.
With that caveat in mind, we still believe scalpers deserve a shot because they have tickets for sold-out games and are usually willing to negotiate to meet your demands, at least part of the way.
At a sold-out Friday afternoon game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Kate Molloy is on the hunt for cheap tickets. The 19-year-old college student from Ireland had been visiting Chicago for two weeks, but she wasn’t ready to return home to Ireland and her schoolwork before she and her two friends could watch the Cubs take the field. She’s not the savviest baseball fan (“Maybe we can get in at halftime,” she wonders aloud), but she’s willing to be creative. And Molloy doesn’t really have a choice–this Friday afternoon game against the St. Louis Cardinals sold out a long time ago. What’s worse (and yet so common) is her lack of funds.
“We’re here for the experience. But we have no money,” she says.
Then Molloy and friends turn down a scalper’s offer for $50 seats “right behind the Cubs dugout.” They’ve inadvertently followed our second rule, a maxim we borrowed from sixth-century Chinese general Sun Tzu: Know thyself.
Know thyself
In our English-to-scalping-ready translation, rule No. 2 involves some self-reflection: identifying how much you’re willing to spend, where you’re willing to sit, and how much time in the park you’re willing to sacrifice to save money, says Gary Dickman, a radio host with ESPN. Playing the waiting game can yield plenty of savings, Dickman says, because ticket prices generally fall further the longer you wait to purchase them.
For Molloy and her friends, this is an easy rule to follow. They’ve already decided to spend $20 each, get seats wherever they can, and wait until later in the game if necessary. Like many groups, they want to sit together, which can make it more difficult to find tickets from the scalpers’ and other sellers’ limited inventories.
Their threesome is flexible, though, and more likely to meet their financial constraints—they’ll sit anywhere, so the piss-poor view they’re likely to get won’t be a deal breaker. If you care where you sit, make sure to reference a seating chart before heading to the field. “Check out seat locations because you will be lied to,” Dickman says.
Play the field
It’s 1:30 p.m. and the game is already underway. Molloy and her friends go through one licensed broker near the Addison El stop ($25 minimum offer) and three different scalpers milling around Wrigley (no offers less than $30). “This game is sold out,” one StreetWise magazine hawker and ticket scalper reminds the girls as continue to move on.
The three women are doing an excellent job of playing the field, which also happens to be our third deal-finding rule. You should never accept the first offer, Dickman says, but keep in mind that scalpers may up the price if they see you shopping around for too long. For the best bargains, Dickman recommends buying from part-time scalpers (the guys with extra tickets in one hand and a crying kid in the other) because they’re usually just looking to get some money back for a friend who bailed.
Molloy and her friends eventually hit the jackpot and find their own ad hoc scalper trying to unload extra tickets (“Somebody gave them to me,” he says). He asks for $30 a ticket–still too high–but the women stick to their plan and say no. Then they start to walk away… and bam! The scalper gives in to their asking price. That’s how it’s done. The friends knew what they wanted, they stuck to their game plan, and they walked away with $20 tickets and all their vital organs intact.
Scalper substitutes
Everything worked out for Molloy and her friends, but the adventurous among you can still scout other options for prime deals. Searches for “Cubs tickets” on eBay Inc. and Craigslist, for example, can lead you to dozens of ticket sellers. Fortunately, our rules work just as well online as they do outside the ballpark.
And not all scalpers work the streets around Wrigley Field. One such man works out of a Wrigleyville bar and boasts nearly 40 years in the business. Visiting him for the first time feels a lot like meeting the Godfather. He requests that his name isn’t used (for obvious legal reasons), but promises his services trump the street-walking scalpers because of his relationship with “reasonable” season ticket holders. His regular contacts sell him their extra tickets at lower rates, allowing him to offer lower prices to fans.
“I don’t try to squeeze every customer I have,” he says. “I treat them like my family.”
Of course, becoming part of that family requires some effort. Ask die-hard Cubs fans about him and you might get a nibble, but you won’t find his name listed in the Yellow Pages.
The recap
The Cubs draw huge crowds even when they can’t buy a win, so do yourself a favor and begin your online ticket search at least a few weeks before game day. But don’t break down into a quivering mass of tears if you can’t do all the legwork online. Just do your homework, know thyself, and play the field.