The Braves have not started selling single game tickets, but ticket resellers are asking a steep premium for the April 14 inaugural game at SunTrust Park.
Tickets for the home opener range from $120 to almost $800 per seat on reseller Stub Hub. On Monday, there were plenty of seats in most locations of the stadium for the opening game. Those prices are far higher than for the remainder of the opening series against the Padres.
Fans buying seats on Stub Hub can get into the stadium and get an seat in the corner of the upper deck for as low as $38 for the April 15 game. The next two games have even lower ticket prices. It cost only $17 for the cheap seats for that Sunday, and Monday’s game for the opening weekend has tickets as low as $6.
Even the March 31 exhibition game against the Yankees has a premium on the tickets at resellers. Stub Hub wants $108 for the cheapest seats for that game. Another reseller, Seat Geek, has similar prices for the opening weekend and the exhibition game.
The cheapest seats there on Monday cost $147 for the opener, $124 for the exhibition game. Tickets for the second home game were going for $46, and it cost just $12 for a seat to that Monday’s game.
Emory professor Tom Smith, who follows economic trends in sports, said such a premium is to be expected, but he said it is impossible to predict whether ticket prices will rise or fall as the opener nears.
The success of the team in its season-opening eight-game road trip isn’t likely to have a large impact on demand for tickets to the home opener, he said. But the team’s success, or lack of, could drive ticket prices for other games in that opening weekend.
“Everybody wants to be at that first game,” Smith said.
And, Smith said, the Braves are attempting to create the illusion that tickets are in higher demand and lower supply for the rest of the season. SunTrust Park has fewer seats than Turner Field had. That means the stadium will appear to be closer to capacity than in the past, even if the attendance is the same.
Last year the Braves averaged 24,949 fans per game at home. That was about 50 percent of what Turner Field would hold. It also was the lowest average since 1990, the year before the Braves began their playoff run. If the Braves average the same number of fans this year, the stands will be, on average, about 60 percent full.
“It will change people’s perception on availability,” Smith said. “Now people are going to have to buy tickets in advance.”
The Braves play only seven home games in April, and that will give the team plenty of time to fix issues with the fan experience. Still, if the team has problems with bathrooms, concession or traffic, Smith expects the fans to be forgiving, at least for a period.
“I think people are just going to live with it,” he said of any less-than-perfect experience in the early games.
