The Los Angeles Dodgers made some major investments over the winter, committing more than $1 billion to a pair of Japanese superstars, but it appears it won’t take long for the club to recover the costs.
In the ticket-selling giant’s annual Major League Baseball season preview, StubHub said the Dodgers are the most in-demand team in the league for 2024 — beating out the New York Yankees, the team that has been #1 for four years out of the last six. The Dodgers were 8th on the same list last season.
The Atlanta Braves, who have similar World Series ambitions to L.A., placed third while the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs rounded out the top five.
The Dodgers’ home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday is the most sought-after ticket on MLB’s Opening Day this year, according to StubHub. The cheapest pair of tickets to the game on the website would run $107 each on the site as of Wednesday morning, before taxes and fees.
The most in-demand single game of the MLB season is the Dodgers’ road bout with the Yankees in the Bronx on June 8. The Dodgers are the most expensive road ticket of the season, StubHub said.
International ticket buyers account for almost 30% of all Dodgers’ ticket purchases on StubHub, with 22% of all ticket purchases coming from Japan.
This surge, of course, is in response to the team’s monumental signing of two-way Japanese star Shohei Ohtani. In six years with the crosstown rival Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani won two American League Most Valuable Player awards. Ohtani will not pitch in 2024 as he recovers from an elbow injury.
The team also added Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is scheduled to make his Dodger Stadium debut on Saturday.
Despite the Dodgers’ opening day game in L.A. on Thursday, the team has already started its season. It played the San Diego Padres in a two-game set in South Korea last week, with each team winning one game.