StubHub Major League Baseball Preview: MLB Global Expansion Continues with London Series Claiming Most In-Demand Series with 50% Lead Over #2 Game

Yankees remain best-selling team and offseason player moves put Phillies and Padres in high demand; StubHub offers 10% discount with MLB ticket purchase

San Francisco, CA – March 14, 2019 (PRNewswire) StubHub, the world’s largest event marketplace and Official Partner of Major League Baseball (MLB), today released its third annual MLB season preview that includes the top-selling teams and most in-demand games of the season heading into Opening Day 2019.

Stubhub Logo

Top highlights include:

  • MLB’s global expansion continues with the London Series, featuring the Red Sox and the Yankees and ranking as the #1 most in-demand series
  • Yankees take #1 most in-demand team for second year in a row
  • Dodgers take the #1 most in-demand opening day game
  • Moves by Harper and Machado places the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres into StubHub’s teams on the rise

MLB GLOBAL EXPANSION CONTINUES

The MLB matchup in London between reigning World Series Champions, the Boston Red Sox, and this season’s best-selling team, the New York Yankees, is already the top-selling series heading into the season. The June 29 game is the #1 single event and is outpacing the next best-selling game, the Red Sox home opener against the Blue Jays, by nearly 50%.

“The appeal of MLB to a global audience continues to grow, and the overwhelming response for the rivalry matchup between the Yankees and Red Sox in London certainly proves that the sport has fans worldwide,” said Jill Krimmel, StubHub’s General Manager of MLB. “So far, fans from 44 different states in the U.S. and 27 different countries have already purchased tickets for the MLB London series, demonstrating that baseball has tremendous potential overseas much like the NFL and NBA have seen.”

Stubhub MLB London Series

2019 TEAMS ON THE RISE

For the first time in a decade, the Philadelphia Phillies earn a spot on StubHub’s top ten most in-demand teams after signing Bryce Harper. Sales are up 93% from this time last year, the highest growth of all teams since last season
Manny Machado signing to the Padres lifted ticket sales on StubHub by nearly 300% compared to the day prior, and overall, the team saw a 44% jump in ticket sales from last year
The Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros also earn spots on this list

TOP TEN MOST IN DEMAND MLB TEAMS ON STUBHUB:

1. New York Yankees
2. Boston Red Sox
3. San Francisco Giants
4. Chicago Cubs
5. St. Louis Cardinals
6. Los Angeles Dodgers
7. Philadelphia Phillies
8. Texas Rangers
9. New York Mets
10. Houston Astros

TOP 5 MOST IN DEMAND OPENING DAY GAMES

1. Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees
3. Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies
4. Chicago Cubs at Texas Rangers
5. Pittsburgh Pirates at Cincinnati Reds

StubHub is marking its 12th season as the Official Fan-to-Fan Ticket Marketplace of MLB and its 30 Major League Clubs. StubHub is also helping fans see their favorite MLB teams by offering a promotion for regular season games. When fans buy a ticket now, they’ll receive 10% off their next MLB purchase. 2019 MLB regular season tickets are available to purchase on StubHub and will be listed up until game time for all 30 MLB teams. As always, StubHub backs all listings with its market- leading FanProtectâ„¢ Guarantee and MLB fans can use StubHub’s 360-degree Virtual View feature and price alerts technology to find the perfect seats for any game.

About StubHub

At StubHub, our mission is to bring the joy of live to fans globally. As the world’s largest ticket marketplace spanning 44 countries, we enable fans to buy and sell tickets to tens of thousands of events, whenever and wherever fans want to be. Backed by award-winning customer care, StubHub’s FanProtectâ„¢ Guarantee means every ticket is 100 percent guaranteed valid or you’ll receive your money back or a replacement ticket of equal or better value. Our business partners include more than 150 properties globally across the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, WWE, NCAA, Matchroom Boxing, plus Paciolan and Tessitura. StubHub provides the total end-to-end event going experience throughout the world. StubHub is an eBay company (EBAY). For more information on StubHub, visit StubHub.com or follow @StubHub on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

16 Dogs, 8 Days, 1 Sled Dog Race

Source: Statista

The Iditarod officially began this Sunday, the dog sled race that spans over 900 miles between the largest city in Alaska, Anchorage, to the old gold-mining town of Nome. The perilous trip along the frozen woods and mountains of the Alaskan Iditarod Trail is run by a 16-dog team and single-human musher.

The race has been going on for over 46 years. Initially, the competition was created to honor the sled dog culture and Alaskan huskie breed, both of which were at risk of being modernized out of existence by snowmobiles after the second World War. The trail itself commemorates a heroic feat completed by a relay of dog sled teams and trappers in 1925, who braved unforgiving, winter conditions to deliver medicine to children in Nome suffering from diphtheria.

As the race has gone on, people and dogs have gotten better at adapting and moving through the conditions, steering away from some more unorthodox choices such as using poodles instead of huskies to run the race. In 1973, the first year the race was held it took the winning team over 20 days to complete the journey. By 2017 the all-time record for the trail was hit in 8 days and roughly 3.5 hours.

While the Alaskan competition has mostly been won by Americans, Joar Leifseth Ulsom was the second Norwegian to win last year, completing the journey in 8 days and 12 hours. The first non-American to win the race was a Swiss man, Martin Buser. Dog sled racing is a popular sport in the United States, Canada, Greenland, Russia, and some European countries, due to the cold, snowy climate.

Iditarod Infographic