MLB at Rickwood Field game tickets sell out in less than 40 minutes

The upcoming MLB at Rickwood Field game proved to be an incredibly hot ticket on Monday.

Tickets for the June 20 St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants “Tribute to the Negro Leagues” game in Birmingham went on sale via a lottery system for Alabama residents only at 10 a.m. Monday. Less than 40 minutes later, nearly all of the more than 5,000 available tickets were gone.

In order to be eligible for tickets, fans had to pre-register via MLB.com. Those fortunate enough to be selected were given the opportunity to buy up to two tickets, with prices beginning at $275 per ticket.

A short time later, tickets were listed on secondary market websites from many times their face value. As of 1:30 p.m., Stubhub had Rickwood game tickets on sale beginning at $665, while SeatGeek had tickets beginning at $726.

The June 20 meeting between the Cardinals and Giants will be the first regular-season game to feature two teams from the American or National League in the state of Alabama. It will also be the first major-league game in the state since the Negro American League (which included the Birmingham Black Barons) was re-classified as a minor-league outfit after the 1948 season.

Built in 1910 and billed as “America’s Oldest Ballpark,” Rickwood Field is undergoing a major renovation for the MLB game. The playing surface is being completely re-done, while dugouts and locker rooms are being modified to meet major-league standards.

Rickwood will seat 8,300 for the Cardinals-Giants game on June 20, though about a quarter of those tickets will be distributed at no cost to Birmingham-area community and youth groups. It’s possible a small number of remaining tickets will be made available to the general public at a later date.

The MLB at Rickwood game will air live on Fox at 6:15 p.m. on June 20. In addition to the MLB game, the Birmingham Barons will face the Montgomery Biscuits in the “MiLB at Rickwood Field” (formerly known as the Rickwood Classic) at 6 p.m. on June 18.

To purchase tickets for the minor-league game at Rickwood, visit milb.com/events/rickwood/tickets.