Coming Sunday
Check out our special four-page All-Star Game preview pullout section, including Tom Archdeacon’s column on Reds third baseman Todd Frazier and a look back at the 1988 All-Star Game in Cincinnati.
If you’re planning on attending next week’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati and don’t already have a ticket, be prepared to pay.
A standing-room spot for Tuesday night’s game was going for $301 this week on VividSeats.com. It goes up from there — way up.
VividSeats offers a $7,593 option at Great American Ball Park. Too rich? The Diamond Seat option is priced at $4,996 for two tickets.
The asking price for four tickets in Field Box 112, Row B, off the third-base line, was $1,070 each. That’s more than 15 times what similar seats would cost for a regular-season Reds game.
Three-day ticket strips for All-Star Game events starting Sunday range from $1,123 to $6,351 on TicketCity.com.
Of course, scalpers are out in force. Craigslist’s Cincinnati site has a section devoted to scalpers selling everything from individual event tickets to “full strips.”
Tickets are available for a weekend and more of events — Monday’s home run derby, Sunday’s Futures game featuring minor league prospects and more.
With an expected 16,000 booked hotel nights and several days of scheduled events, Cincinnati’s expected economic benefit is estimated at $60 million, said Julie Calvert, vice president with the Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“It’s a whole week,” Calvert said.
Nancy Massie, 59, of St. Paris, plans to volunteer at the All-Star FanFest Duke Energy Convention Center. But the cost of tickets and expected massive crowds probably will keep her away from the games themselves, she said.
“It’s a good place to be,” she said of FanFest. “Everybody’s there to have a good time and they enjoy themselves. You might see some players, too.”
Jeff Rexhausen, senior research associate at the University of Cincinnati Economics Center, said the impact of the 86th All-Star Game can go beyond this week and next.
There’s the chance to make a good impression on the thousands of people descending on the Queen City, Rexhausen said.
“I think one of the things that’s not usually counted in an economic impact analysis is what happens when people come to the city, they experience it, and they say, ‘Oh wow, that was great. That’s a place we ought to go back to,’ ” he said.
Downtown businesses are looking forward to a chance to impress not just residents of Cincinnati and its environs, but those flying in from afar, Rexhausen said.
“We’re not only proud to be hosting this, but we’re looking forward to having people come and find out that, hey, this is a great part of the country to come and see,” he said.
Calvert agreed, noting that her bureau will host plenty of customers and partners hailing far from Ohio. Those will include business executives scouting future event locations. She said the community’s chief opportunity lies in “leveraging” the game.
“I think that’s the biggest opportunity,” Calvert said. “It’s not just the immediacy of the game.”
Rexhausen said he probably wouldn’t go to the game, but he does plan to attend some of the festivities.
The “All-Star Weekend” includes the FanFest at the convention center. Hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday-Monday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, there’s the Color Run MLB All-Star 5K.
At 8 p.m. Saturday, the Budweiser MLB All-Star concert is set at Paul Brown Stadium.
Sunday will see games devoted to “legends” and the “future” of the game at Great American Ball Park. The SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game is 3 p.m. A celebrity softball game follows.
The MLB All-Star Summer Pepsi Block Party is noon to 8 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, on East Freedom Way, between Joe Nuxhall Way and Rosa Parks Street.
The Home Run Derby is 8 p.m. Monday. Hall-of-famer Ken Griffey Jr. will throw out the “first pitch.”
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