Remember how crazy Black Friday sales would get back in the day? They aren't quite as insane nowadays with online shopping being many shoppers' go-to, but they used to be quite the spectacle with consumers doing whatever they could to ensure that they get what they want.
Insane Black Friday events don't really happen anymore, but something similar just took place at the Los Angeles Dodgers game.
Dodgers fans pull out all the stops to ensure they get a Shohei Ohtani bobblehead
Ticket prices for Shohei Ohtani’s Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium have just skyrocketed.
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) May 16, 2024
The cheapest ticket to get seated right now is listed at $191 😳
Only the first 40,000 fans will get their hands on a bobblehead. pic.twitter.com/KMB9yK4k2N
Thursday's series opener against the Cincinnati Reds was Shohei Ohtani bobblehead day. Tickets, unsurprisingly, were an absolute fortune. The first 40,000 fans were set to receive bobbleheads, which is a ton, but the Dodgers also hid 1,700 bobbleheads of Ohtani in a road gray uniform. Perhaps that little wrinkle is why the lines wound up being what they were.
Shohei Ohtani bobblehead night at Dodgers Stadium tonight. Gates don’t open for a couple of hours and the line is already crazy pic.twitter.com/L9HedG0AE4
— brandon wenerd (@brandonwenerd) May 16, 2024
The line for Shohei Ohtani's bobblehead is INSANE 😮
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 16, 2024
(via @EHernandezTV)pic.twitter.com/D7xE9njc8z
According to ESPN's Alden Gonzalez, there was a line that went all the way out to the street at 3:00 p.m. PT, four hours before first pitch. Fans pulled out all the stops to get a bobblehead, and are doing their best to try and get one of the rare road gray ones.
As Dave Roberts said, this kind of reaction from Dodgers fans is not a surprise. There's a reason that the Dodgers gave him a contract worth $700 million over the offseason, and it only partially had to do with his absurd play.
Ohtani is the biggest draw in baseball and one of the biggest draws in all of sports, and he was signing with one of the most popular teams in baseball. This kind of line and these absurd ticket prices for a bobblehead show just how worthwhile the contract was for the Dodgers to sign, even with all of the deferred money. This beats a classic Black Friday sale, and that feels crazy to say.