One thing about Alex Rodriguez hasn’t changed — fans can’t look away.
While the scandalous slugger’s 2013 debut on Monday night produced the YES Network’s highest ratings of the season, demand for tickets to Rodriguez’s first game back in The Bronx with the Yankees have been juiced by his return to majors.
According to tiqiq.com, the average ticket price for Friday night’s game against the Tigers has jumped from $80.14 to$94.54 (17.97 percent) since July 31, while the number of available tickets has gone down 29.42 percent since his debut to around 8,800 tickets. The cheapest ticket available is $34, up 41.67 percent from Monday.
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“Although this isn’t a huge increase like we have seen in the past for, say, [Carmelo Anthony’s] first home game at the Garden, it is still a significant increase in price over the last couple days,” said Chris Matcovich, the vice president of Data & Communications for TiqIQ.
Rodriguez’s dramatic return to the lineup in an 8-1 loss to the White Sox averaged a 4.34 rating for YES, far above the 2.5 average this season (down 39 percent from last season’s 4.1). Viewership peaked with an 8.22 average between 8:30-8:45 p.m., when Rodriguez’s first at-bat of the season (a bloop single to left) took place.