The Tigers are offering at least two sections of $10 tickets for every home game this season, except for the one obvious game they didn’t, Opening Day.
But those cheap seats are in small supply and apparently high demand, fans are finding out.
For the three games against the Chicago Cubs and the three against the New York Yankees next month, the Tigers offered the $10 tickets, but in the words of the late, great Ernie Harwell, they are long gone. During a browsing session Wednesday afternoon, the cheapest seats available for the Cubs games May 11-16 were $34, $35 and $27. For the three against the Yankees on May 28-30, the get-in price was $26, $33 and $27.
The $10 tickets remain available for the rest of the May home games, against the Minnesota Twins (May 7-9), Kansas City Royals (11-13) and Cleveland Indians (24-27).
The Tigers are offering the $10 seats in sections 344 and 345, just right of the left-field foul pole. The tickets are socially distanced in groups of two or four. They’re offering the deals, the cheapest seats they’ve had since they sold the $5 skyline seats years in 2012, despite capacity limited by COVID-19.
“Baseball is for everyone,” said Ron Colangelo, the team’s vice president for communications. “And with $10 tickets available for every Tigers game, we look forward to seeing families, kids, first responders, first-timers, and all the great Tigers fans back at Comerica Park this season.”
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The Tigers are limited to just over 8,000 fans a game — a bittersweet number, given it’s a 20% capacity cap a year after they didn’t sell a single ticket, but a big increase over the 1,000-fan cap the state originally planned.
They sold out their first three home games, announcing 8,000 fans. They’ve been in the 7,000s for the four home games since, including 7,356 for Wednesday afternoon’s 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. (The weather was brutal, and only a fraction of those fans actually showed up.)
The Tigers continue to be in active discussions with state and city officials about increasing capacity at some point this season. But with Michigan’s COVID-19 cases surging, it’s likely to be about 8,000 for a while.
For now, the team will continue to sell single-game tickets on a month-to-month basis. Tickets for May games are on sale now, while June tickets are scheduled to go on sale in mid-May.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tonypaul1984