All-Star prices going down; Derby tickets available on Twins website

Ticket prices to Major League Baseball's All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby are going, going — down.

Over the past few weeks, the prices have dropped some 22 percent from a peak of $729 to a new daily low of $571, said Connor Gregoire, a spokesman for SeatGeek, a ticket search engine that pulls together listings from major online brokers.

Tickets for the Home Run Derby have dropped similarly — from $365 three weeks ago to $267 now.

As of noon Friday, Home Run Derby tickets were available for face price on the Twins' web site. The best seat at that hour was in the sixth row of Section 305, Row 6 for $186, including fees.

Through Thursday, fans were paying an average of $675 per ticket for Tuesday's game at Target Field and $323 to see Monday night's Home Run Derby. Those hoping for cheaper tickets should wait as long as they can because trends from previous years indicate prices will drop up to 15 percent by game day.

"There's something to be said for the peace of mind that comes with buying your ticket in advance and knowing you have it, but for the very price-sensitive, the waiting game is the best course of action," Gregoire said.

With the Minnesota Twins in Seattle and ticket sales churning online, Target Field buzzed Thursday with crews putting on the shine for the biggest sports event for the Twin Cities in years.

A worker stood above the big scoreboard in left field cleaning the screen with a brush and a pulley system.

Out in center field, red, blue and yellow flags marked the contours for the All-Star Game logo. Crews wielding spray paint laid down the logos along the first- and third-base lines. Groundskeeper Larry DiVito groomed the infield dirt with a screen pulled by a Toro tractor. All-Star Game player jerseys were in the windows and up for sale in Target Field's memorabilia store.

Outside the park, crews washed down sidewalks and stairwells with power washers.

Network television trucks had begun filling an adjacent parking lot. Major League Baseball paid to permanently fortify Target Field's Wi-Fi for the game, making it tops in the league, Hoy said.

SeatGeek said the entry price for the game is the highest since 2009, when the search engine began monitoring the Twin Cities secondary-ticket market through online broker listings. SeatGeek combines ticket listings from sites like StubHub, TicketsNow, TicketNetwork and RazorGator so fans can compare prices.

All-Star Game prices are directly tied to seat location. The get-in price for the game is $271 right now. That's standing-room-only. A seat costs an extra $60 or so. The best seats, behind a dugout, sell for $1,500, Gregoire said.

For the derby, the get-in price was $152 Thursday. A seat in the outfield, where the balls land, costs at least $450, SeatGeek reported.

Gregoire said the All-Star ticket market is similar to last year's game at Citi Field in New York, when the daily average for the game was $577 at this time in the process and derby tickets went for $269.

SeatGeek estimates that Minnesotans have purchased 35 percent of the secondary market tickets. Californians are second with 16 percent, followed in order by Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin residents.

The prices won't be Twin Cities records for too long.

"Recent Super Bowls have fetched average ticket prices of $2,500 to $3,500," Gregoire said. "Especially given that it will be a brand new venue, I'd expect prices to be closer to the high end of that range."

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747 @rochelleolson