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World Series tickets? Online only, fewer than 20,000 seats per game

Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 17, 2007 at midnight

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The Colorado Rockies have decided to sell World Series tickets only online, abandoning plans to also make them available through a lottery at Coors Field and Rockies Dugout Stores.

The team said this morning that it is already seeing "incredible" demand for tickets, which officially go on sale Monday at 10 a.m.

Although Coors Field can hold more than 50,000 fans, fewer than 20,000 tickets will likely be available for each game after the Rockies allot tickets for season-ticket holders, both teams and Major League Baseball, team spokesman Jay Alves said.

The Rockies determined "that no other method of ticket distribution is quicker or more efficient than the Internet," Rockies President Keli McGregor said in a press release.

"It's our attempt to get as many tickets to as many Rockies fans as possible," McGregor said. "After consulting with Major League Baseball, we felt this was the best way to create a fair and equitable distribution of tickets for the first-ever World Series in Colorado."

Fans can buy up to 4 tickets per person per game.

Prices range from $65 to $250, although additional transaction fees apply.

The Rockies are scheduled to host games 3, 4, and 5 — if necessary — of the World Series.

Alves insisted the club's computers were ready to go and said the staff is prepared for any crashes.

"We don't anticipate that, but if something happens, we're ready for that too," he said. He declined to give details.

The switch was made in part due to the team's experience with the Wild Card tiebreaker game and the first two rounds of the playoffs, when online sales reached 500 tickets per minute at one point, Alves said.

Without going into detail, he said measures are in place to try to thwart scalpers looking to scoop up dozens of tickets.

Peter Bishop, 32, had planned to start work late Monday so he could be in line at Coors Field at 7:30 a.m. for the lottery. Along with friends and family members, he wants eight seats, ideally for Game 3.

"We're certainly not being picky. Any ticket is a blessing as opposed to no tickets," said Bishop, of Denver.

Bishop also posted four ads on Craigslist seeking to buy from season-ticket holders. As of Wednesday morning, he hadn't heard anything.

Bishop had mixed feelings about sales being totally online.

"If 250,000 people are online trying to get tickets, I can't imagine the Rockies' Web server can handle that sort of load," he said.

One season-ticket holder who identified himself only as Jim was offering two Game 4 tickets on Craigslist for $1,500 each. He said he will be at Coors Field for the World Series but couldn't use all his tickets.

The ticket reseller StubHub already has sold more than 700 tickets for Game 3 at an average price of $718, spokesman Sean Pate said. The cheapest sale was an upper right field reserved seat that sold for $348; the most expensive sale was $3,000 for an infield box seat, Pate said.

Cleveland and Boston are still competing for the American League title, but World Series tickets at Fenway Park and Jacobs Field are already selling on StubHub. The average price on StubHub was $1,556 for a seat in Boston and $472 in Cleveland, Pate said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.