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The World Series is not turning out to be the closely matched competition that Major League Baseball hoped for, with the Dodgers rushing out to a three-games-to-none lead and in line to complete the sweep Tuesday night. But fans are still buying event-related merchandise at unprecedented levels.
League officials said that a single-day merchandise sales record was set at Dodger Stadium for Game 1 on Oct. 25, and then another venue-specific mark was established at Yankee Stadium for Game 3 on Monday. Specific revenue figures were not released, but both venues had lines to get into team shops hundreds of fans long, including well after the first pitch of those games. The new sales marks also carry no shortage of history behind them, as Yankee Stadium opened in 2009 and Dodger Stadium did so in 1962.
“It was a record day [Monday] following record days in L.A.,” MLB deputy commissioner Noah Garden tells Front Office Sports. “There are lines for the [MLB Flagship] Store [in Manhattan] around the block before it opens now, too, and it’s all indicative of the excitement and how everyone wants to be a part of the moment and commemorate this event.”
A series of other MLB merchandise records and sales increases have been set in recent days, including a new high-water mark for MLBShop.com sales through the first four days of a World Series, beating the prior high—the celebrated 2016 clash between the Cubs and Cleveland—by 117%. Additionally, all playoff-related sales on the league-controlled site are up by 62% compared to a year ago, sales of clinch-specific items are up by 185%, and October sales at the MLB Flagship Store are up by 68% compared to this month in 2023.
Not surprisingly, player jerseys have been a key driver in the World Series merchandise activity, particularly given this year’s event features the No. 1 (Shohei Ohtani), No. 3 (Aaron Judge), No. 4 (Mookie Betts), and No. 7 (Juan Soto) players in 2024 regular-season sales. But other commemorative products such as pins, baseballs, and bobbleheads have also been popular—mirroring a broader boom still unfolding in the sports memorabilia business.
“There are items that are certainly breaking through this year, pieces that you can put behind your desk, on your desk, on your nightstand, and so on,” Garden says. “This type of event lends itself well to those kinds of items, and fans are leaning in to it. Cards, too. Baseball cards are on fire right now.”
Ticket Market Crashes Further
Only one MLB team has recovered from a 3–0 deficit in a best-of-seven postseason series: the 2004 Red Sox. Because of that and the Yankees’ anemic World Series performance on the field—as seen by the team’s collective .186 batting average against the Dodgers—the ticket resale market continues to plummet.
Low-end, get-in tickets that a week ago started at about $1,200 each can now be had for as little as $475 for Game 4, with further drops possible Tuesday afternoon.
