According to ticket aggregator TicketIQ, games in Los Angeles are averaging around US$3,100 on secondary markets; games in New York come in at an eye-watering average of US$4,875.
The top-seeded Dodgers will have home advantage through the series and will look to starting pitcher Jack Flaherty to get them off the mark in Friday’s opener.
The Los Angeles-born Flaherty, who was traded to the team he supported as a boy earlier this year, is relishing his moment in the spotlight.
“When you add in all the players and just how deep this series is with talent and the guys and the names that are out there, it’s as star-studded as it gets,” Flaherty said.
The Yankees will start Gerrit Cole on the mound as they aim to spoil the Dodgers’ party before the series heads back to New York for game three next Monday.
But the undisputed spotlight will be on Ohtani, who joined the Dodgers from the Los Angeles Angels last December after inking a 10-year US$700 million contract – the richest deal of its kind in North American professional sport.
Ohtani will be making his World Series debut after failing to reach the postseason once in six frustrating seasons with the Angels.
“I’m very excited,” Ohtani told reporters on Thursday. “I have been watching the World Series every year, watching it with a sense of disappointment because I couldn’t play in one. But this year I’m able to participate in one, and I’m very much looking forward to it”.
