Cubs fans have been waiting for the team to return to the World Series since 1945, and some fans have been angling for rooftop tickets to the Fall Classic since the spring.
Wrigley Rooftops has been building a waiting list that’s drawn fans from as far away as Australia since April, said operations manager Stacey Loukas.
“We’re used to taking names that early, but this year it’s great to be going this far,” she said.
The company manages 11 rooftop clubs along Waveland and Sheffield avenues, most controlled by Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts and his family.
Wrigley Rooftops’ tickets will be sold first-come, first-served, Loukas said.
On Friday, the 11 rooftops combined had about 2,000 available seats for the first and third home games, and about 1,600 open for the second home game, and only a “couple hundred” people on the waiting list across all three games, Loukas said.
Wrigley Rooftops will keep adding names to the waitlist this weekend, and any remaining spots will go on sale at 9 a.m. Monday, she said. Orders will be taken online and by phone, first-come, first-served.
Murphy’s Rooftop Co. also has been getting requests to add names to its rooftop waitlist since the team clinched Saturday night, but owner Beth Murphy is trying not to get fans’ hopes up.
Unlike Wrigley Rooftops, Murphy’s, which seats 65, offered options on World Series tickets at the start of September. The nonrefundable $145 reservation guaranteed fans a chance to buy a ticket if the Cubs advanced.
Those options sold out Sept. 15, said event sales manager Matt Maroni.
Fans can still join Murphy’s wait list but will only have a shot at a ticket if someone who bought an option fails to claim their ticket. About 90 percent of people who reserved National League Championship Series tickets chose to buy.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to pass (a ticket) up,” Murphy said.
Seats outside the ballpark won’t come cheap. A ticket at Murphy’s will cost $600 on top of the $145 option fee. At Wrigley Rooftops, tickets to the first and third games range from $735 to $1,016 per person plus tax. The cheapest seats at the second game will be $849.
That’s a bargain compared with average prices Friday on ticket search engine SeatGeek, which listed average prices of $3,000 or more for Wrigley Field games.
Those prices typically come down substantially as the game approaches, said SeatGeek spokesman Nate Rattner. Last year, resale ticket prices for World Series games between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets averaged $886 across the series but hit an average of $1,205 at one New York game, according to SeatGeek.
Fans who entered the Cubs’ postseason ticket lottery can keep their fingers crossed, but the odds are slim: More than a million people have registered for a shot at getting one of the “thousands” of available tickets, said Cubs spokesman Julian Green. Winners will likely be announced this weekend, he said.
Twitter @laurenzumbach