The World Series begins tonight at Globe Life Field in Texas, a match-up of seemingly polar opposites between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays. While the two teams posted the best records in their respective leagues, they accomplished it with much different financial measures.
The Dodgers had MLB’s second-highest payroll in 2020 at $107.9 million, topped by Clayton Kershaw’s $16.3 million salary. In comparison, the Rays had a combined payroll of $28.3 million — Tampa’s highest paid player is Charlie Morton, who made $5.5 million this season.
Fan Challenges
The World Series will also mark the first major U.S. sports championship to allow fans to attend. However, even at 29% capacity, those seats could still be unfilled. Per TicketIQ, there were between 1,600 and 2,300 tickets on the secondary market available for each game of the 2020 World Series as of last night — nearly the same number of tickets as last year despite the 11,500 fan cap in 2020.
The average ticket price for Game 1 as of Monday was $641, about a third less than the same point for last year’s World Series. Those looking to watch have to buy tickets in four-seat “pods” spaced at least six feet apart from other groups to ensure social distancing.
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