Giants fans are desperate for tickets

Giants fans are especially anxious today.

The heck with watching tonight's World Series opener against the Detroit Tigers in the comforts of home or the more frenzied confines of the local bar. Fans who sleep in Giants colors want to be inside AT&T Park, rain, cold, hail – or a mixture of all three. But what to do?

Some fans said they are willing to sell their souls for stadium entry, or at least sacrifice next month's mortgage for a ticket. On Craigslist, a licensed contractor offered to paint a house for a ticket. Another wanted to swap 49ers, Warriors or Kings tickets for the prized ticket. Yet another was willing to pony up what he described as his large stash of drugs. That last post was removed from the site after a short period.

And then there's Kevin Calcagno. Imagine the torturous tease he had on his desk Tuesday afternoon. The Sacramento native who works locally in account management in the oil and gas business has a ticket for tonight. But just one. He purchased it through a Giants ticket lottery when the team trailed Cincinnati 2-0 in the National League Division Series – and the season seemed in peril.

Calcagno, 45, promised himself he wouldn't worry about this ticket quandary unless the Giants made it to the World Series. Now he's frantically trying to sell the ticket.

"I'm lucky that I'm not scrambling for a ticket, but with just one, it makes the whole thing so … blah," Calcagno said. "I could go by myself and have a great time with whoever is standing next to me, but I went to a World Series game in San Francisco in 2002, and it's great to go with others. No way I take my wife, Dawn, and have her in the standing-room-only area."

Or why not have yourself in standing room only? Another debate for another time.

Calcagno has his ticket on StubHub. Cost: $475.

He's not alone in hawking tickets. More than 10,000 tickets were available online Tuesday, and all were considerably marked up. Tickets for Game 7 of the National League Championship Series ranged from $150 to $5,000. Logic suggests that tickets were sky-high Tuesday because of the buildup, but how much – if any – will they drop in price?

Sites such as StubHub, Cheap Concert Tickets and others had tickets going from $325 for nosebleed seats or standing room only to $10,000 for prime seating near the field.

According to various reports, this World Series will represent the priciest tickets for any Bay Area public event since the 2010 World Series, which the Giants won. The average ticket price for a potential Game 6 Halloween night at AT&T Park, according to a number of sites, is $797. Game 7 tickets are going for an average of $887. By comparison, tickets for Game 1 of the 2010 World Series averaged $940.

Some fans will go to the park tonight without a ticket. They'll go just to soak up the atmosphere. Some are willing to pony up to $100 for limited parking and stand next to the Willie Mays statue, if not climb it, as dozens of delirious fans did during and after the NLCS Game 7 victory over St. Louis on Monday night.

"I'll lean against the brick walls to feel the energy and listen to the game on radio," said Stanley Evans, 55, a Bay Area native who lives in Fair Oaks and works in auto sales. "Just to be near the place is better than watching it on TV."

Other fans will pack into a small opening in the right-field corner for a peek at the action. Waves of spectators have flocked to that spot for years. For playoff games, they are ushered out after a few minutes to allow a new swarm to peek.

Allison Mason wants better. By Tuesday night, she had given up on trying to find tickets for Game 1 and was searching for tickets to Game 2 Thursday. A Giants fan for as long as she can remember, the Auburn resident who works for Los Robles Regional Medical Center said she was working with a friend to secure six tickets – three for her family, three for her friend's family.

"Don't know if it is possible, but we are trying," she said. "We need to do this because I did not pull the trigger in 2010 in the World Series. Big regret of mine."

• Read more articles by Joe Davidson

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