Baseball season is back and that means it is time for fans to return to the ballpark as we countdown to Missouri sports betting. At BetMissouri.com, we were interested in seeing how much it costs on average for Kansas City Royals’ and St. Louis Cardinals’ season ticket holders to see a win at a home game.
Using Baseball-Reference.com and Statista data, we found the average cost per home win between the 2022-2024 seasons. We then also ranked all teams from most affordable to most expensive tickets to see a win over the past three years. This is how MLB’s two Missouri clubs compare to the rest of the league.
Avg. Home Ticket $ for 81 Games | Avg. Cost/Home Win | MLB Standing |
$2,943.27
| $76.60 | 22nd place |
MORE: Royals World Series Odds.
Avg. Home Ticket $ for 81 Games | Avg. Cost/Home Win | MLB Standing |
$3,086.64
| $72.42 | 18th place |
MORE: Cardinals World Series Odds.
Both Royals and Cardinals season ticket holders received below average value between 2022 and 2024, paying above average prices for mediocre results. The average Royals ticket over that span cost $76.60 per win, while the average Cardinals ticket cost $72.42 per game. Due to the average ticket price for season-ticket holders, fans in St. Louis paid more for tickets than any fanbase except the Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, Cubs, Dodgers, Nationals and Giants, all major market teams in areas with a much higher cost of living in general.
For their investment, Royals season ticket holders have witnessed the team go 117-126 at Kauffman Stadium since 2022, MLB’s tenth worst home record. The Cardinals are 21 games above .500 at Busch Stadium over the last three seasons at 132-111, but with 19 teams sporting winning home records since then, their .543 home winning percentage is good for just 14th across the league.
Unsurprisingly, the World Series champion Dodgers own the best home record in baseball the past three years at 162-81, nine wins more than the second place Braves. But with the league’s fifth most expensive tickets on average, the Dodgers rank 23rd in cost per home win at $78.80, just one spot ahead of the Royals.
Dodgers’ division rival Arizona leads the league in cost per win at a mark of $45.73. The Diamondbacks are 127-116 at home since 2022 and boast the second cheapest average ticket price at $24.00 a game, behind only Miami.
Teams charging premium rates for tickets struggled in this analysis because the top five teams in ticket price do not line up with the rest of the market. Even with MLB’s eighth highest average ticket price, the cost of Cardinals tickets is closer to the Marlins than the Dodgers. This is why the Marlins rank eighth in cost per win and every team in the top five in ticket price ranks in the bottom ten of that metric, with Boston bringing up the rear at $129.52 per win, over $10 per win more than 29th place Washington.
Although the Cardinals ranked ahead of the Royals in value overall, the tides turned between the two teams last year. After winning only 56 games in 2023, Kansas City notched a 30-win improvement in 2024, earning the team’s first playoff berth since the 2015 World Series campaign behind a strong starting rotation and 2nd place MVP finish from Bobby Witt Jr. While the Cardinals also orchestrated a turnaround last season, jumping from 71 to 83 wins, it was the first time since 1995 the Royals finished with a better record than them.
Sportsbooks expect the Royals to be the better team once again this year. FanDuel Missouri set Kansas City’s seasonal over/under win total for 2025 at 83.5 compared to 76.5 for St. Louis. The Royals sit at +110 to make the playoffs versus +360 for the Cardinals.
USA Today photo by Jay Biggerstaff.
Author
Josh Markowitz is a freelance writer for BetMissouri.com. He is a lifelong sports fan with an emphasis on basketball, football, baseball and the scouting/evaluation process. A graduate of Elon University's School of Communications, Josh also has experience in television production.
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