Meet the students who paid $9 for World Series Game 1 tickets
"We made our way over to Fenway by about 5:30 a.m."
Anyone looking to go to Tuesday night’s World Series opener at Fenway Park was probably expecting to shell out a pretty penny. Tickets to Game 1 averaged between $900 and $1,012 on some resale websites, but a group of five college students managed to get the most bang for their buck– nine bucks, to be exact.
Owen Miller, a student at Northeastern University, knew about Fenway’s ticket deal with nearby colleges, which allows students to purchase game tickets for just $9 with a valid student ID.
“Since my freshman year, I’ve always signed up for the Student 9s,” Miller said. “I might’ve missed it up until this year or it might’ve been new, but I got an email [that said] for playoff games, the first 100 students were going to get tickets. So we saw that and we were immediately like,‘We have to do this, let’s make it happen.’”
Miller texted a group of friends from Northeastern and it was decided: they were going to get these tickets.
The group of guys, who are mostly from New York with one exception from Massachusetts, went back and forth trying to figure out how early they needed to be in line, who was in charge of bringing the essentials– chargers, food, water– and what they could wear that would keep them warm enough on a chilly October day.
At 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning Miller, Jack DeWitt, Joe Von Holten, Rob Vanaria and Max Willner-Giwerc woke up and headed to Fenway Park, where they would spend the next 19 hours.
“[We] made our way over to Fenway by about 5:30,” Miller said. “At that point, there were six people ahead of us in line, so it worked out pretty well.”
Although Fenway’s website says that people are not allowed to line up until five hours prior to the start of the game, Miller explained that the ballpark’s staff didn’t enforce this and was accommodating of those who lined up extra early. At noon, Fenway staffers made their way through the line handing out paper slips to the first 100 students in line, guaranteeing a ticket to those who received one and allowing them to ensure that no one cut the line.
“They weren’t regulating if we were in line before that five hours,” Willner-Giwerc said. “They were actually just making sure that people were safe in line, that people were getting rid of their chairs and coolers at the right time, and they started handing out the paper slips well before the five hour mark. So [the staff] was okay with us lining up at that time.”
People in line weren’t supposed to leave their spot for longer than a quick bathroom break, even after the paper slips were passed out. But the group was prepared and had definitely planned ahead.
“We definitely stocked up on snacks beforehand,”Willner-Giwerc said. “My old roommate from last year, Joe [Von Holten], brought two sandwiches, I brought a sandwich and three Clif bars. And at one point we actually did UberEats and got some Tasty Burger, so we got some hot food there in the middle. People all along the line were getting Domino’s delivered, so it was great. It was a really fun atmosphere.”
After 15 hours of waiting, the guys finally got their tickets and saw the Red Sox win Game 1 of the World Series for less than what their Tasty Burger cost. So was it worth it?
“Absolutely, no doubt in my mind it was totally worth it,” Willner-Giwerc said.
“I would say that last night was the best sporting atmosphere I’ve ever been in for any live game in my life,” Miller agreed. “100 percent worth it.”
