THE CHICAGO IL REAL ESTATE MARKET, AND OTHER THINGS CHICAGO, FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A LITTLE WHITE DOG!
You know, I'm not trying to be deliberately partisan, but, as you know, I am a Chicago Cubs dog! However, I do feel bad for you Beagles and Schnauzers down on the South Side of Chicago, as your Chicago White Sox were just swept by the rival Minnesota Twins up in Minneapolis.
If you South Siders ever need a tail to cry on, I'm here for you!
Did you receive your 2008 Cubs Playoff Tickets, for games to be played at Wrigley Field, yet? If you're like most people around here - you did not!
Wanna go? Grab your wallet - it will cost you!
The Cubs are making fewer tickets available to the public than they did for last year's playoff series, when they made an early exit after quickly losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round. This year, virtually all available extra public seats to the Cubs Postseason will be available in the secondary ticket marketplace - with the greatest number of available tickets being found at StubHub.com.
San Francisco-based Stub Hub has proprietary technology to purchase extra tickets from Season Ticket Holders wanting to sell them, and offering the extras to those wishing to buy. After shunning secondary market ticket sellers for many years, considering it "scalping," all Major League Teams, including the Chicago Cubs, now embrace the practice, and generate considerable profit from it.
In August, 2007, MLB inked a five-year deal with Stub Hub to make them the official secondary marketplace for tickets to every major league team, and every big-league game - regular season and post season.
The secondary ticket market broker generates 25% in fees from every transaction - 15% from the seller of the ticket, 10% from the buyer. Of course, Major League Baseball and each team gets a piece of the action as well. Mark McGuire, Cubs Executive Vice President, wouldn't specify how much the Cubs take is, but added, "It's lucrative. I think it's going to be a good relationship for us."
Joellen Ferrer of Stub Hub says there are more than 2,000 tickets for each possible game in the first round of the Cubs playoffs - the National League Divisional Series. For last year's short post-season run, the team itself made available 900, 600, and 300 tickets respectively (games two and three were never played, as the Diamondbacks swept the Cubs 3-0 in this Best of Five Series (only one game was ultimately played here in Chicago, at Wrigley Field).
First-round tickets, says Ferrer, are listed for an average of $490 this year on Stub Hub, up from an average of $338 last year. The average is the highest in the majors. She feels prices typically drop the closer to game time, as unsold tickets remain on the site.
Feeling lucky? Want a Chicago Cubs National League Championship or World Series ticket?
You'll have to reach your paws deep in that wallet! Cubs World Series tickets are posted for as much as $15,000 a piece - a few even more! (As a true-blue Cub Fan, you know how hard it is for me to bark out the words, "Cubs World Series").
Earlier this week, the Cubs estimated 22,000 Season Ticket Holders received their post-season 2008 tickets. These represent slightly more than half of Wrigley's estimated 42,200 total seats plus standing room. Thousands more tickets are reserved (or, as we say, "dog-eared") for Major League Baseball, players and their families, advertisers, employees, assorted hangers-on, and various public officials.
The Mayor of Chicago, as well as each Chicago Alderman, will be offered two premium tickets to every Cubs home post-season game. Noted celebs - perhaps Bill Murray, Jim Belushi, and John Kusack will undoubtedly get their tickets as well.
Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama? He's a South Sider, an admitted Chicago White Sox Fan, and likely still crying in his beer over the recent sweep by the Twins. I hear he also has other things to be concerned about these days, too.
Here's the rub - not a single ticket is being set aside for Little White Dogs! Isn't that unfair!
You Billy Goats - don't even think about getting a ticket!
Read my post from yesterday evening @ BlogChicagoHomes.com for more info, and a link to the full story in yesterday's Chicago Tribune, by Mark Karo and Josh Noel. They also discuss White Sox Post Season ticket sales as well - but, as we dogs know, the Sox aren't a lock yet for post-season baseball in Chicago.
YOUR ACE REPORTER ON FOUR PAWS,
BUDDY HOLLY MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
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