KC Royals ticket prices skyrocket as playoffs return to Kansas City for ALDS

The Kansas City Royals brought postseason baseball back to Kauffman Stadium for the first time in nine years, putting a bow on their remarkable 2024 season. There have been several memorable moments in the Royals home stadium since the 2015 season, but there is nothing like a Kauffman crowd in the playoffs. There is also nothing like the cost of being a part of said crowd.

Rising wins means rising ticket costs for KC Royals fans

Kansas City Star's Joseph Hernandez compiled a snapshot of ticket prices ahead of Wednesday's Game 3, with varying prices but the same result. Whether fans sifted through resellers or went straight to the source, it was no cheap affair to see the New York Yankees in Kauffman Stadium. The Royals themselves offered the cheapest option, with standing-room tickets for $150. If fans wanted a seat closer to the action, a 100-level seat cost customers nearly quadruple that standing-room price at a whopping $569.

Resellers offered little reprieve but offered it nonetheless. Hernandez evaluated four popular reselling sites — SeatGeek, StubHub, Tickets for Less, and Vivid Seats — to find the cheapest options for each standing room and reserved tickets. Vivid Seats had the closest options to the team's prices, with their standing room tickets at $151 and seated tickets at $194.

Tickets for Less, a ticket seller based in Overland Park, Kansas, had the most expensive tickets ahead of Game 3. Their cheapest standing room tickets would cost fans $227, while their $285 seated options led the selected pack.

All of those prices include fees, but not the entire cost fans should expect. Parking fees, concessions, and obligatory merchandise purchases can increase a ballgame's toll immensely. Boston University finance lecturer Mark Williams detailed all about how the rising costs and disregarding the effects on fans "is undermining its longer-term appeal." The numbers don't lie, even during the postseason.

The Royals' home attendance was one of the league's worst this season, despite their winning ways. On average, 20,473 people attended Kansas City's home games, good for 26th out of 30 MLB teams. Find any purported reason or excuse, the result remains the same — the Royals were not drawing fans to Kauffman Stadium. But the 40,312 in attendance for Game 3 proves that postseason baseball will always draw fans in, no matter the cost.