More than a year after its debut game, demand isn't slowing for ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC tickets.
Fans of the second-year Major League Soccer club are paying much bigger prices for tickets on the resale market than backers of nearly all other MLS clubs, data shows.
In an examination of recent secondary-market ticket sales data for all 29 MLS clubs' recent home games, City SC and Inter Miami, which features global superstar Messi, are garnering far higher prices than the other 27 clubs.
The get-in price for City SC's two most recent games is about $75, which doesn't include fees, usually about 20%, levied by sites such as SeatGeek and Stubhub.
That puts the total price to get into a City SC game at about $90 per ticket. Inter Miami is just a few dollars more, and no other team is close to those two.
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Most MLS clubs are between $15 and $30 to get in the door via a secondary market ticket purchase.
Secondary market sales data only captures resold tickets, a second transaction after the club has already sold the ticket. Individual game tickets from the club can sometimes cost far less, especially when bought by season ticket-holders.
But the club still has about 12,500 people on its season-ticket waiting list, according to officials.
Given a 98% renewal rate for season tickets this season, working through that list may take some time.
So secondary market sales can sometimes provide more access to tickets for buyers, but that comes at a price.
In examining the price of the median sale, City SC is priciest at $172.80 per ticket plus fees, about $6 more than Inter Miami. All other clubs' median sale prices are under $100.
That high demand is evident in the raucous home-field advantage City SC enjoys.
"It’s undeniable ºüÀêÊÓƵ has some of the best fans in all of sports. Combine that with ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ incredible soccer history and the passion this town has always had for soccer, we are certainly grateful for the amazing support we’ve received from the fanbase in our first two seasons," Edmound Elzy, vice president of ticket sales for City SC, said in an email interview.
"And that passion absolutely turns into a home field advantage for the team. The energy inside the stadium is quickly becoming one of the best experiences in sports."
And fans are willing to pay for that experience.
Through April games, of the more than 5,500 tickets sold on the secondary market for City SC games this year, home and away, the 56 highest-priced tickets all were for games at CityPark.
The priciest tickets to watch City SC this season were a pair of tickets sold for more than $1,200 each for two club seats to an April home game vs. Dallas.
City SC officials are doing their best to help grow the fanbase amid sky-high demand.
The team holds back 15% of CityPark's capacity for single-match sales, including some for youth soccer teams and community groups, Elzy said.
For fans looking for more affordable chances to catch the team, Elzy suggests the Leagues Cup later this summer.
Tickets for the team's games in that event, when City SC hosts Mexican teams on July 27 and Aug. 4, are available for far lower prices than any other remaining games.
"Leagues Cup is a chance to see City SC play top international competition," Elzy said, "and it is becoming a really exciting in-season tournament for North American soccer fans."
Some local soccer fans are reportedly boycotting the event in response to MLS leaving City SC out of the historic US Open Cup.
Additionally, the team's three weekday home games are available for slightly lower prices on SeatGeek.
Elzy also said that City SC's developmental team, City2, offers a good value for fans and provides an avenue to allow more to experience what City SC and CityPark are all about.
"We understand that because of the excitement around the club, not everyone is able to make it to a first team match, so this year we started putting additional emphasis behind our second team, City2," Elzy said, emphasizing the many kid-friendly offerings at those games. "We see City2 as a way for future fans to be able to get to know and watch our future stars."
Data note: The Post-Dispatch examined the most recent two home games for each MLS club at its usual home field through April. One outlier, the Inter Miami game at New England, was removed from the data because sale prices for this game were many times the usual prices for New England home games. Inter Miami's game at Kansas City was also not included, as it was played at Arrowhead Stadium, which is not Sporting Kansas City's usual home, and few tickets were even sold on the secondary market. The get-in price was determined by using the 10th-least-expensive sale price in the combined sales data of a team's two games. The median price was also determined using the combined sales data of the two games.