Philly tix prices holding steady

Tickets for game 2 at Tropicana Field have dropped $20 since yesterday, according to StubHub's noon report.

Prices are down to an average of $374 for tonight's game, and down to $393 when you average together what has been spent on all four projected games. Interestingly, the average price for a possible Game 6 next Wednesday is $445, and $479 on what would be a clinching Game 7 next Thursday.

Corporate spokesman Sean Pate wrote in an e-mail that he doesn't expect those prices to remain at that level.

"Game 6 and 7 are definitely higher at this point because what may be at stake, but I expect those prices will drop some as well as we saw with Game 7 for the ALCS," he wrote.

StubHub gets a 10 percent fee for any ticket it sells, so you'd think the overall lower prices when compared to last year, for instance, would be having a negative impact. But Pate said that's not the case.

"Actually, both gross sales and actual ticket sales are up substantially over last year's totals already and we still have the potential for a long series," he wrote. "We've sold more than double the amount of tickets for the World Series this year. The price is a great inhibitor to many fans so when they come down to earth its better for the business in all reality. Gross sales have been much more positive as well given the increase in volume."

In Philadelphia, the average price for the three games has remained constant, sitting at $854 in today's report. That breaks down to $871 for Saturday's game, $851 for Sunday's and $824 for Monday's. While a number of ticket buyers have paid less than $200 apiece for last night's game and tonight's game at Tropicana Field, Pate wrote that he hasn't seen anything sell for less than $350 for a game in Philly during the past couple of days.

Anyone planning to go Saturday probably has taken more than one peek at the extended forecast, and it doesn't look good at all. Heavy rain seems inevitable at some point during the day. The key question is when the storm or front and its accompanying rain pulls away. If Saturday's game is postponed, Major League Baseball has said that anyone with Game 3 tickets would use those for whenever that first game is played in Philly. Assuming that's Sunday night, then Game 4 ticketholders would use those Monday and Game 5 ticketholders would use those Tuesday.

Nothing official has been announced, and no doubt won't be until late tomorrow or Saturday as Major League Baseball, which will make the call on delaying or postponing the game and the arrangement on the tickets, monitors the conditions.

The last World Series rainout was two years ago in St. Louis.