Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times has been breaking down the order charges associated with baseball tickets for some time. Yesterday he posted about some of the new numbers for this year. The Mets were roughly middle of the pack until Citi Field opens, but now as most of you are probably aware, there is a ticket fee and an order fee. This year they’ve added a fee to mail you the tickets, so the cheapest option is a $2.50 surcharge to print them yourself. All teams seem to do this, despite it basically costing them nothing to email you the tickets.
I poked around a little bit myself with what I could find in my email regarding ticket prices over the years. Jaffe has total costs listed back through 2007, but I found some from before that.
For the 2007 and 2008 Playoffs there was a $12 per ticket fee, but no order fee.
Jaffe lists the Mets price as $6.50 in 2007. I don’t doubt him, but the only receipt I have from that year is for the Yankees, and it’s $9.25. ($4.75 + $4.50)
In 2005 there appears to be no per ticket fee, or it was built into the price on the receipt, and there was a $3.00 order fee. The prices of the tickets appear $6 higher than the price of the same ticket in 2004, so I suspect that’s the order fee.
In 2004 the per ticket fee was $6.00 and there was a $2.50 order fee.
So lots of order fees and surcharges through the years. Luckily there are also ticket deals, and you still can get tickets at the ballpark without any fees at all.
