Baseball ticket sales soar

What steroids controversy? Based on a report released Thursday from Major League Baseball, ticket sales for the 2008 season are off to a rousing start, topping 19 million sold so far through the league’s website MLB.com.

The 2007 season set a record with more than 27 million tickets sold online, and the 2008 season is already on pace to break that mark. Online ticket sales at the same point last year only totaled about 14.7 million. These numbers do not include secondary ticket sales through MLB’s deal with StubHub, the league’s authorized ticket reseller. StubHub has long said that baseball tickets were among its top markets.

The increase in MLB’s online sales comes at a time when several teams, such as the Red Sox and Yankees, are raising ticket prices. In 2007, it took until May 31 for the league to reach 19 million in online ticket sales.