Message to October-dreaming Yankee fans: The World Series is already 99 percent sold out — unless, perhaps, you want to spend a ridiculous $23,000 on a ticket.
Only 735 tickets out of Yankee Stadium’s 50,235 seats per game will be available to the general public if the team wins the pennant next month, the Bronx Bombers said.
Since the Yankees’ 37,000 season-ticket holders get first dibs, and Major League Baseball mandates another 12,500 seats be set aside for players, executives and corporate sponsors, average fans will have no choice but to turn to the secondary market.
In fact, thousands of World Series tickets are already for sale on Stubhub.com for anywhere between $100 and an astounding $23,000.
When the Yankees won the pennant in 1996, by comparison, legions of diehard fans camped out in The Bronx for the 15,000 seats made available to the public for each of the World Series games.
That number has dwindled to under 5,000 per game in recent years, but the smaller capacity of the new ballpark made opening the box office almost unnecessary, a spokeswoman said.
Although no one disputes that season-ticket holders deserve first crack — especially given the exorbitant licensing fees many laid out this year at the new ballpark — fans say it’s unfair the playoffs have become off-limits to the average Joe.
“Wow, 735 — that’s more like a mid-size company — it’s just not fair,” said Stephanie Eisenberg, 25, a financial analyst from the Upper East Side.
With those odds, said Kristina Lucarelli, a fan from the East Village, “I’d have a better chance of getting struck by lightening than scoring a World Series ticket.
“Instead, I’ll have to buy a lottery ticket and hope I win enough to buy a seat at the World Series.”
It’s too early to tell how many season-ticket holders are going to sell their ducats to make back some of the money they shelled out this year, said Joellen Ferrer, a spokeswoman for Stubhub.
But although the Yanks have yet to sell a playoff ticket, season-ticket holders are already unloading them in anticipation on Stubhub. Currently, division series games are selling for an average of $147, championship series for just over $200, and the World Series for $1,000 a ticket, Ferrer said.
Don Vaccaro, CEO of reseller Ticket Network, said, “There is going to be a glut of tickets — especially for the first round of the playoffs.”
Season-ticket holders, many of whom are getting a discount on playoff seats from the team to make up for some of the exorbitant fees they paid during the regular season, will “try to unload them in the division series,” Vaccaro said.
“But if many follow suit, they could end up going for even less than face value.”
If the Yankees make the World Series, Vaccaro said, “You are going to see tickets selling for triple face value — with the highest increases coming from the cheaper seats.”
jeremy.olshan@nypost.com