Sox have a big lead in playoff ticket prices
Red Sox fans eager for playoff tickets could find themselves a bargain: For less than the price of a seat at Fenway Park, they may be able to fly to Chicago, stay at a hotel overnight, and fly back the next day.
In Chicago, $199 buys fans access to a lower-level seat down the third base line of U.S. Cellular Field, according to a search of ticket brokers online. A similar seat at Fenway: $775.
Fans in search of luxury also will find themselves in luck in Chicago. For $201.25, they can gain access to the ballpark's exclusive club level, which includes private concessions with waiter service and a lounge and plasma televisions, according to its listing online. A similar ticket listing for Fenway, which makes no mention of amenities, is selling for $525.
With those differences, fans could throw in a flight to Chicago ($259 as of yesterday afternoon on Hotwire.com), and a hotel room ($45 for the Regal Motel O'Hare Airport), and still come out ahead.
The disparity in prices is one more sign of the enduring popularity of the Red Sox in Boston, and it demonstrates why the team's business executives have so eagerly added seats and created special sections. On the ticket website StubHub yesterday, some of the costliest seats were for the Green Monster, at $1,200 apiece, and for a roof deck table in the outfield, which was selling for $800 a ticket.
The ticket prices also point to the clear lack of enthusiasm that Chicago has shown to its second hometown baseball team, which has long been overshadowed by the cross-town Cubs. That the Cubs play in a ballpark, Wrigley Field, that ranks as one of baseball's gems, while the White Sox are across town in a modern facility with little of the same charm, does not help the South Side team.
In Chicago, some bars are even predicting that Red Sox fans may outnumber those rooting for the local team. Nic and Dino's Tripoli Tap, a bar in the Chicago neighborhood of Lincoln Park, expects 90 percent of its patrons today to be Red Sox fans. The bar already has a World Series ticket from last year and an autographed photo of Bruins legend Bobby Orr on the walls. When Boston travelers visit the city, many show up out of the blue at the bar, said owner Steve Nicoli said.
Nicoli said the difference in price between Red Sox and White Sox tickets does not surprise him. In Chicago, he said, it is the Cubs who are known as the yuppie team, while the White Sox attract a staunch blue-collar base. ''It's not a groundswell as much as it would be if the Cubs have won," he said.
Other Chicago bars, giddy with the prospect of legions of Red Sox fans descending on the city, are rolling out the welcome mat as well. Monsignor Murphy's, an Irish bar, already has been fielding dozens of calls from fans eager to know where they can watch the game. The bar even carries NESN, which is tuned to Red Sox games. Last year during the World Series, fans packed six deep, and a few got up to dance on the bar. A television crew from Fox showed up to record the scene.
''If this week is anything like what it was for the playoffs last year -- oh my God," said Adrienne Misa, a bartender. ''Boston people are everywhere."
Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com. 
