10/26/2026
With the World Series upon us, we're looking back at the World Series from 100 YEARS AGO! The 1926 Fall Classic was the St. Louis Cardinals vs the New York Yankees. (Spoiler Alert: The Cards won in 7 games).
Baseball has changed a lot in 100 years. One of the biggest differences is the COST OF TICKETS. It opens up a discussion! Can average people still enjoy in-person professional sports?
BRACE YOURSELVES: here comes some math!
🎫 In the second picture you can see a 1926 World Series Box Seat ticket cost $6.60 for Game 4. Bath Ruth famously hits THREE home runs in this game!
💵 $6.60 in 1926 has the purchasing power of $125.62 in 2026. You’d be hard pressed to get ANY World Series ticket for that price today - let alone a box seat!
⚾ For Game 1 of the 2026 World Series, tickets at American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, gave some fans sticker shock. The cheapest “seats” in the stadium were $2,609 for standing room. And if you wanted Box Seats, behind home plate, cheapest tickets are $19,174.
🎯 The comparison of the box seats got us thinking…If $19,174 in 1926 money is the equivalent of $1001.55, dividing that by the cost of $6.60 means you could have bought more than 151 BOX SEATS for the cost of ONE SEAT in 2025. 😮
🏈 It's not just the MLB. NBA Finals tickets this year reached into the hundreds of thousands. Chiefs fans sure know the cost of a Home Game these days too!
(inflation calculator via Bureau of Labor Statistics.gov)
