We talk a lot about patience paying off at the ticket window, and tonight's Braves at Dodgers NLDS Game 2 is the cleanest real-world example we've seen all postseason.
Since we started tracking it on September 25, get-in prices for Braves at Dodgers at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium have swung from a high of $182 down to $116 just three days ago. That's a 33% drop in the last seven days alone, and as of today the event is sitting at $122 to get in the door. If you'd bought the moment tickets went on sale, you'd have paid real postseason premium. If you waited, the market came to you.
This isn't luck — it's the pattern
Our best-time-to-buy research, built from 5,076 events tracked between late July and early October, shows sports tickets fall a median of 22% from 30 days out to the day of the game. Zoom into just the final two weeks before puck drop, kickoff, or first pitch, and sports tickets still drop another 14% on median — and get cheaper outright 67% of the time across the 294 games we measured. The Dodgers game is tracking almost exactly to that script, just compressed into a tighter window because it's a single postseason date with no slow build.
It's a good reminder that the scoreboard isn't the only drama worth watching in October — the price chart has its own storyline, and right now it's bending in the buyer's favor for one of the hottest tickets in Los Angeles this week.
Not every ticket plays by the same rules
Of course, patience is a strategy, not a guarantee — and football tells a slightly different story. Across the league right now, our NFL price index (as of October 3) shows a median get-in of $109, with demand running hot for teams like the Raiders and Bears while Cowboys tickets sit at a league-low $33 median. If you're eyeing Sunday's Buccaneers at Cowboys matchup in Arlington, you're already looking at a from-$28 ticket that's drifted down 10% over the past week — proof that even outside the postseason, letting the market settle tends to work in your favor more often than not.
The lesson for fans chasing a World Series run, or just a Tuesday night at the ballpark, is the same: track the number, don't chase the headline. A ticket's price on the day it goes on sale rarely tells you where it'll land by first pitch.
Where to watch next
If you're the type who likes to see the data move before you commit, this is exactly what our price index is built for — full histories on games like tonight's NLDS matchup, league-wide tables for every major sport, and the research behind calls like "wait for the final two weeks." Whether you're chasing the Dodgers deep into October or just scoping out what's playing this weekend around this weekend, the price history is there before you buy, not just after.
