Ticket prices are soaring as Shohei Ohtani is set to make his 2025 pitching debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night against the San Diego Padres.
“He’s ready to pitch in a major league game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after their 5-4 win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. “He let us know that.”
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Hours later, the Dodgers announced on social media that Ohtani would pitch on Monday. This will be his first time pitching since Aug. 23, 2023, when he left a game against Cincinnati. Ohtani had his right elbow surgically repaired the following month.
Even with Ohtani expected to pitch only one or two innings, according to TickPick, ticket prices went up by 174% after the team announced Ohtani’s season debut. The get-in price for Monday’s game rose from $51 to $137.
Back in March, a report from Vivid Seats noted that the average ticket cost for a Dodgers game increased after the team won the World Series against the New York Yankees in October.
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The average price of Dodgers tickets, home or away, was around $181, according to the report. The average cost was $40 more than the next highest mean ticket price, held by the Boston Red Sox.
The Dodgers managed to secure the World Series crown last year without using Ohtani on the mound. Now the defending champions get a boost, building up their two-way star with plenty of runway left in the season.
Apart from the game tickets ballooning, a Bluesky user who identified themselves as a Dodger Stadium tour guide highlighted how tour tickets have skyrocketed to $202.25 for Monday. The tour usually costs $40 for adults and $30 for children. The user, Tavi, wrote that tour guides make minimum wage, and their wages do not increase with ticket rates.
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Ohtani last pitched in 2023 for the Angels, throwing 132 innings with 167 strikeouts and a 3.14 ERA. At the plate this season for the Dodgers, Ohtani is hitting .297/.393/.642 with a National League-leading 1.035 OPS and 25 home runs.
Ohtani is in the second season of his 10-year, $700 million contract as the Dodgers are 43-29 on top of the NL West.
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