Good morning. Thirty-two years after Joe Carter’s home run lit up the SkyDome, Jays fans are paying record prices for another shot at October magic. What’s behind that jump – and why inflation only tells part of the story – is in focus today.

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It’s Oct. 23, 1993. Farook Mansoor and his wife, Afsana, are in Aisle 107, Row 9. Online queues aren’t a thing yet – buying these seats meant mailing in a cheque and hoping their names were drawn in the World Series ticket lottery. They’re next to the stairs, an easy spot to slip out for a wander.

But they don’t want to: the Blue Jays shoot up to a 5-1 lead by the fifth inning – the McCain Punch is almost palpable – only to see the Philadelphia Phillies roar back into the lead in the seventh. In the ninth, closer Mitch Williams is brought in to protect a one-run lead.

With one out and two runners on base, Joe Carter steps to the plate.

Are we not entertained?

If it weren’t for the stubs Mansoor saved, he might have forgotten how much they cost. All in, two tickets to one of the most iconic sporting events in Canadian history set them back about $116.

“When he hit that home run, it was surreal,” said Mansoor, 56, who works at a bank and lives with his wife in Scarborough. “The whole stadium just went berserk.”

Yesterday, anyone trying to buy similar 100-level seats for the Blue Jays’ World Series home games against the Los Angeles Dodgers first had to hope for an early spot in a digital lineup tens of thousands deep.

If you made it to checkout, those $116 tickets would now cost roughly $223 in today’s world, adjusting for inflation.

Not bad! But also: Not even close to what those seats sold for in today’s world. Because in today’s world – the one inflation can’t fully capture – a game of baseball has evolved into a multi-sensory sporting festival with DJs, video games, meeting places and more. And sharing in real, human moments – say, a recent Springer Dinger that spurred a stranger to lift a certain newsletter writer from the ground in glee – has perhaps taken on more meaning after years of pandemic-induced isolation.

And so, even before the resale market entered the equation, single seats in the 500s were going for more than what those 100-level tickets might’ve cost if inflation were the only factor. And resale? Last night, seats in the nosebleeds were approaching $2,000 on Ticketmaster and StubHub.

“It’s an experience,” said Mansoor, who still regularly goes to games. “I know what it’s like. Anyone who feels it’s worth it – anyone hoping for that same feeling – I get it.”

“But some of these prices are way beyond a normal person’s capability.”

So, what changed?

Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO, said regular ticket prices have risen well ahead of inflation because of a mix of demand and supply factors.

Incomes and wealth have climbed faster than prices, and people are devoting more of their budgets to experiences like live sports. Greater Toronto has grown from a few million residents into a region of more than six million, with far more people chasing the same number of seats. And soaring player salaries have added pressure – costs that only make sense because fans turn out.

“Those salaries couldn’t be accommodated if people weren’t willing to pay up for these tickets,” Porter said in an interview. Fans like Mansoor see the same dynamic from the stands. “As long as people are willing to pay, they’ll always sell out,” he said.

Add in the way teams and their partners can price tickets – dynamically, by the minute, with algorithms tracking demand – and the math gets even more unforgiving, more precise in squeezing margins than any scalper in ’93 could have been.

Ultimately, though, “outsized ticket-price inflation in spectator sports and entertainment generally” has risen across North America at a faster rate than overall inflation, Porter said.