‘We can’t afford that’: For these Phils die-hards, out-of-reach ticket prices dampen World Series

Khodr Kobeissi fell in love with baseball in the late 1970s, sitting in the cheap seats by himself at Veterans Stadium.

He was an immigrant from Lebanon, learning the language and the game, marveling at the dazzling play of Bake McBride, Mike Schmidt, and Manny Trillo. That foundation built a lifetime of fandom — Kobeissi proudly took one daughter to her first Phillies game when she was 12 days old. He cherished autographs he got from Greg Luzinski and Jay Johnstone when the players ate at the Middle Eastern restaurant where Kobeissi worked.

Kobeissi went on to have careers as a bookstore manager and truck driver, to raise a family, and own a house. His love of the Phillies only grew. But attending a Phillies World Series game is out of reach for Kobeissi and his wife, Najah, as it is for thousands of everyday people for whom even face-value tickets were an unthinkable expense.

“I saw on the news, $1,000 for a ticket — no way I would be able to buy that,” said Kobeissi, who lives in Washington Township. “I figure if I cannot afford to go to the game, I have my TV.”

Kobeissi was still happy to watch the Phils, who lost a heartbreaker, 3-2, in Game 5 Thursday night. With the Series moving to Houston and the season nearly over, it was fans’ last chance to see their team play at Citizens Bank Park until April 6, when the 2023 team is scheduled to take on the Cincinnati Reds in the home opener.

But the high cost of tickets — with even face-value seats in the hundreds of dollars per ticket, and most fans missing out on the lottery to buy those — dampened the World Series experience for Jennifer Gotthelf, a teacher from Moorestown. She and her husband shelled out $1,000 for two tickets to the National League Championship Series, but that was a stretch.

Gotthelf looked at resale sites for possible World Series opportunities, but couldn’t swing the costs. She watched the series on TV, cheering herself hoarse, fuming when she saw some people sitting close to the field not cheering, not in Phillies gear, or looking at their cell phones. She even wondered if more “regular people” had been in the stadium, the energy would have been different.

“We’re frustrated,” said Gotthelf. “All the millionaires or the people who know somebody, or the big executives who don’t go to games during the regular season, but go to the World Series for status, that’s frustrating.”

During the regular season, Zack Sminkey, a teacher from Woodstown, N.J., spent $50 a month for two tickets that gave him standing room seats for any home game. He and daughter Zoe, 3½, were fixtures at Citizens Bank Park — they attended 40 games in the regular season.

“They do allow you to bring outside food in, so it really was a pretty affordable family outing,” said Sminkey. “I try to park in the cheapest lot I can find to save money.”

Sminkey badly wanted to make a World Series game happen, but it but it took begging and some financial finagling to make it happen. He managed to score some face-value seats after he made a direct appeal to the Phillies, but that was a sacrifice; Sminkey had to sell some collectible T-shirts he had been saving to pay for the tickets.

“I’m living on a teacher’s salary. It’s not like I had the cash on hand to buy those tickets; I had to sell the shirts,” said Sminkey.

Derek Lofland from Sussex County, Del., is a Phils die-hard who tried every way he could think of to find a World Series ticket he could afford. It was not to be.

“You weren’t going to get anything below $800 to $1,000 for standing room only,” said Lofland. “If you want an actual good seat, you’re looking at thousands of dollars. Me and my wife are just normal people — we work for the state, we have a daughter. We can’t afford that. My wife would kill me me if I paid that price; she already thinks I go to too many Phillies games.”

Lofland, 44, entered the Phillies lottery to buy face-value tickets. He had his wife enter. They don’t know anyone who won.

“It seems like it’s celebrities, corporate sponsors, all those people who were there,” said Lofland.

John Pirela, a letter carrier from Quakertown, also had World Series dreams but not the budget. If he had been able to score tickets, he would have taken the biggest fan he knows: his mom, Carmen, a retiree living on a fixed income, taking care of another son and his children.

But it wasn’t to be.

“They cut out the possibility of just regular, great fans who want to go being able to afford it,” said Pirela, 51. “People like us realistically can’t afford to go to a game.”

Pirela got lucky, and was able to attend a playoff game because a friend gifted him a ticket. And he was tempted to splurge and make the World Series happen, honestly.

“If it was up to me, I’d say, ‘Let’s go,’ ” said Pirela. “But my bank account said no.”