Cubs send out postseason invoices; some prices up more than 20 percent

Cubs season-ticket holders began receiving their postseason invoices Wednesday afternoon, and unsurprisingly, prices have gone up.

Before you totally blame the Cubs for this, Major League Baseball has considerable input on postseason pricing. Clearly, they saw the popularity of the Cubs through last year’s World Series run and the prices shown below reflect that:

For my bleacher seat, this reflects an increase of about 24 percent over 2016 pricing.

The Double Play Plan, which is no longer being sold but includes Wednesday and Friday day games, has pricing that will be the single-game prices for those levels. For Combination Plan holders (the weekend/night game package), here’s the games they will get:

It should also be noted that Cubs season-ticket holders are being invoiced for 12 games this year instead of the 11 we paid for last year. This is because of the change in home-field advantage determination for the World Series. Thus we are paying for a wild-card game, three division series games, four LCS games and four World Series games. Obviously with the current standings it’s unlikely the Cubs will be in a wild-card game, and they’re not likely to have home field in any of the other rounds, either. But since that possibility does exist and these invoices are being sent out nearly two months before postseason games begin, the Cubs (and any other team that’s doing this) must sell all possible games. Season-ticket holders can get a refund for any unplayed games, or apply the money to next year’s season tickets.

Unlike past years, the Cubs did not include a ticket for a potential tiebreaker game (and this year, there’s certainly a chance of one) in the season-ticket book for the regular season. They put this note in the packet regarding a tiebreaker:

If a tiebreaker game is required, Daily and Combination Plan Season Ticket Holders will have the opportunity to purchase tickets equal to the number of tickets listed on their account (for the seating location(s) noted on your invoice) to the tiebreaker home game. In the event of a tiebreaker game, additional information will be shared closer to the end of the regular season as a ticket for the game is not included in your postseason ticket booklet.

I found this paragraph from the information packet quite interesting:

Opponents and home field advantage will be determined at the end of the regular season. This may not be finalized until the final day of the 2017 regular season, and if necessary, may require a tiebreaker game to be played. Home field advantage in the League Division Series and League Championship Series is given to the team with the better overall regular season record if both teams are Division Champions, and to the Division Champion if one team is a Wild Card game winner. The pennant winner with the best overall regular season record will have home field advantage during the World Series.

Unless I’m missing something, that means a wild-card team could have home field in the World Series, something that’s happened only once, in 2014 when both participants were wild cards.

Season-ticket holders must pay in full for postseason tickets by 5 p.m. CT Wednesday, August 30. There’s no information yet on single-game sales, but I would assume that won’t be before late September, and when I get that information I’ll post it.

Lastly, the Cubs also included this important note in the info packet:

Please do not share or post your ticket’s unique barcode online. To help prevent the unintended or fraudulent resale of your postseason ticket(s), refrain from sharing images that reveal your ticket’s unique barcode letters and numbers. Please note, if you do share your barcodes, the Cubs will not be responsible for resulting use by third parties.

This would seem to be so obvious to me, but I saw quite a few people posting ticket images with barcodes last year on social media. I’m sure you can see why this is a really bad idea. When I get my tickets I’ll likely post images of them here, but with all the personal information blocked out.

Like last year, I certainly hope I get to use most or all of these tickets. It would certainly help if the Cubs would start winning some more games.