The team is doing well, so secondary market pricing is on the way up.
Welcome to our first look at Cubs attendance and ticket pricing for this year.
With the Cubs in first place in the NL Central, attendance has been up recently. Overall, for 26 home dates at Wrigley Field the Cubs have sold 997,088 tickets, or 35,610 per date. The total number ranks sixth in MLB, and the Cubs will go over the 1 million mark Friday. The average ranks seventh, about 1,000 ahead of the Giants (34,605) and a few hundred behind the Braves (36,371).
As is my practice in these articles, I ask BCBer Lifetime Cubs Fan to put together some information on pricing trends, what’s happened to date and what fans can look forward to if they’re looking for tickets to future games.
The rest of this post is by LCF.
Hello Bleed Cubbie Blue community! Lots to celebrate thus far this season, my PSA levels have been undetectable now for seven months and the Cubs are in first place! I will share some observations through the first 26 home games at Wrigley (excluding the Tokyo Series). Based on the attendance thus far, even though it’s materially similar to the start of 2024, I feel Wrigley is going to be a very popular spot to be at this summer based on:
- Ticket availability to upcoming games (compared to same point last year).
- There are 16 upcoming games where the bleachers are sold out. There were just a handful of upcoming games sold out in the bleachers at this point last year
- Inquiries from friends and family for tickets have increased. Between the walkoff on May 27 and noon on May 28, I had five people reach out to me for future ticket availability. In general, there has been a lot more interest in games
- Between now and the start of the Bears season on Sept. 8, the Cubs will have the attention of most of the city (as the White Sox are drawing less than half per game compared to the Cubs)
Attendance comparison – in the chart below, you see that the Cubs attendance is nearly mirroring attendance levels in 2024 at 35,091 per game thru the first 26 home games of 2025. However, with playing the Reds this weekend (likely 118,000+ for the series) and a of July 4 holiday homestand and the Red Sox in town in July, I feel we will see some separation between now and the next attendance update.
Now let’s take a look at prices. The chart below shows the comparison of what a season-ticket holder paid versus what someone paid on Seatgeek 24-48 hrs prior to the game for bleacher tickets. As you can see, with the exception of the Rangers series, bleacher tickets were significantly more expensive on the secondary market for every other series. The two series with the highest percentage premiums were the series against the Phillies (86 percent premium) and the series with the White Sox (85 percent premium).
For those who plan, when tickets went on sale in February, choosing the lower price between Cubs.com pricing and Seatgeek, a non-season ticket holder could have procured bleacher seats for the first 26 home games for the average price of $46 per ticket compared to $37 per ticket for STH (a 24 percent premium to what a STH paid). Waiting to purchase tickets a few days before the game on Seatgeek and that average bleacher ticket cost increases to $57 per ticket (a 54 percent premium to what a STH paid). I will say this about Seatgeek. In my view, I feel it is getting more popular as the ‘go to’ secondary market site (based on ticket listings). I won’t go into all the details tied to Stubhub’s downfall, but the consensus is that listing on Seatgeek is immensely easier and virtually free of issues. The same can not be said for Stubhub.
Pro tip – when inventory on Cubs.com is limited, an option for getting tickets at a more reasonable price than the secondary market is leveraging various facebook groups. There are multiple groups with vetted STH sellers offering seats to most games at significantly better prices than Seatgeek/Stubhub since there are no fees involved. I continue to see many instances of people with specific requests getting multiple reasonably priced responses in a timely manner.
I will end this post with a brief story of an encounter I had on Opening Day. While I was shopping in the team store at Gallagher Way, my girlfriend pointed out to me I was standing next to Ryne Sandberg, who was doing some shopping for his grandkids. I asked for a minute of his time and thanked him for sharing his diagnosis and how it helped propel me to make it a priority for me having my PSA levels tested and all the events that followed. He was gracious the entire time and was touched to hear that making his diagnosis public helped influence others to get checked and get on the road to recovery sooner. The mantra “be kind to others” means more today than ever before, and, in my opinion, it is easy for one to be kind when within the confines of Wrigley Field.
As always, Go Cubs!