Food prices at Camden Yards

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, Orioles Jim said:

I think todays a premium game of sorts and the $12 seats aren’t available.

Would love to be wrong about though, given that I’m playing hooky and walking over to the game today and haven’t purchased my tickets yet.

Maybe that’s the case but the promotion doesn’t state that things are different for premium games.

[backwardsk]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Wait... you're telling me the Nats charge $24 for a single craft beer?  A few years ago I was in LA and I got a Dodger dog and a beer (I forget what kind) and it was $20 and I thought that was extortionist. I was kind of shocked when the Angels were charging $14 for a beer, and FedEx was long infamous for $11 cans of Miller Light. $24 should make the Nats owners cower in shame. That's basically like a soda machine where a Dr. Pepper is $11. They might as well have some kind of huge goon standing next to the concessions yelling out "hey yous, the beers are $24. If you don't like it, get the hell out of my stadium!"

I have heard that Atlanta is great for food prices. The Mercedes dome... thing... has the cheapest food and drink in MLS. I suppose the Braves are copying them. Good for them.

Aside from Atlanta, this feeds into the narrative that American sports are for upper and upper-middle-class people. Others need not come. Which is fine in a vacuum, fine for some kind of economics class experiment, fine for owners whose primary goal is short-term profits. But what happens down the road when the fanbase doesn't really include people who're not making six figures? Or since nearly all US sports are doing this, that a significant percentage of the population just doesn't regularly go to live sports because it's outrageously expensive? Like I mentioned, me, the wife, and two kids going to DC United on Saturday and the total bill will probably be $350, and that's with discounted tickets and if I can park at Ft. McNair next to the stadium for free.

They are 24+ ounces. Still a rip off, but I guess they justify it as “well these suckers will pay $15 for a 16oz Bud Light, let’s try charging more for a larger, better beer.”

I don’t know if it significantly impacts people with more modest incomes. Credit is still plentiful and people aren’t afraid to finance non necessities.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, backwardsk said:

They are 24+ ounces. Still a rip off, but I guess they justify it as “well these suckers will pay $15 for a 16oz Bud Light, let’s try charging more for a larger, better beer.”

I don’t know if it significantly impacts people with more modest incomes. Credit is still plentiful and people aren’t afraid to finance non necessities.

If you’re having to finance your beer purchases, you’re in trouble.  

[Orioles Jim]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

If you’re having to finance your beer purchases, you’re in trouble.  

You mean that’s not what student loans were for?! 

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, backwardsk said:

They are 24+ ounces. Still a rip off, but I guess they justify it as “well these suckers will pay $15 for a 16oz Bud Light, let’s try charging more for a larger, better beer.”

I don’t know if it significantly impacts people with more modest incomes. Credit is still plentiful and people aren’t afraid to finance non necessities.

If people are saying "$24 for a beer is insane, but I can always just lump that in with the rest of my crippling credit card debt" the situation may be more dire than I thought.

But then again, I've also read the the average new car transaction in 2023 was $47k, and 10-year loans are not uncommon. So I guess a lot of people figure they can just roll the loans over until they die...

[DrungoHazewood]

4 hours ago, Rbiggs2525 said:

Today on a 1 o’clock game the lowest ticket price is 24$. If I wanted to take my son,  48$ nose bleed seat, 30$ parking, 30$ on 2 meals, 30$ 2 beers. We will have 20,000 fans if we are lucky and 5000 will be Yankees fans.

I mean, you could park in a garage for less and walk a little farther, bring your own food/drink, and take SportsGuy's advice and buy $12 bleacher seats. The costs are ludicrous if you let them be, but there are cheaper options if you take advantage of them.

You can go to the movies and pay $10 for a ticket and $27 for the cubic yard of popcorn and a gallon of soda. But really the popcorn and soda are optional...

[DrungoHazewood]

3 hours ago, Orioles Jim said:

I think todays a premium game of sorts and the $12 seats aren’t available.

Would love to be wrong about though, given that I’m playing hooky and walking over to the game today and haven’t purchased my tickets yet.

Right now on StubHub there are tickets for $10.

[Aglets]

Just now, DrungoHazewood said:

Right now on StubHub there are tickets for $10.

so $35 after fees?  

[Sanfran327]

3 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I mean, you could park in a garage for less and walk a little farther, bring your own food/drink, and take SportsGuy's advice and buy $12 bleacher seats. The costs are ludicrous if you let them be, but there are cheaper options if you take advantage of them.

You can go to the movies and pay $10 for a ticket and $27 for the cubic yard of popcorn and a gallon of soda. But really the popcorn and soda are optional...

Every now and then I'll look at my CC charges and check what I've spent on a sporting event. I don't do it often, because it's depressing.

First game I took my 2 older boys to in the 2022 season got up around $700 with the tickets (200 level, but not the real club or a suite), snacks, actual food, adult beverages for me and my wife, and souvenirs. IIRC, tickets were about 40% of the overall cost. 

We don't go to as many games as I'd like to, but that's probably a good thing. I like to pretend I'll retire some day.

[Ohfan67]

4 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

But what happens down the road when the fanbase doesn't really include people who're not making six figures? Or since nearly all US sports are doing this, that a significant percentage of the population just doesn't regularly go to live sports because it's outrageously expensive? Like I mentioned, me, the wife, and two kids going to DC United on Saturday and the total bill will probably be $350, and that's with discounted tickets and if I can park at Ft. McNair next to the stadium for free.

I totally hear you, not really disagreeing, and it sucks. BUT, I'm not sure that it really matters in terms of fandom. The vast majority of NFL fans won't attend an NFL game in person in their life. Another chunk might attend one or two games in their entire life. I know die hard college football fans who have literally never stepped foot on a college campus. Sports are kind of weird that way IMO. Almost by definition, as the sport gets more and more popular a smaller and smaller percentage of the fan base will see a live event. Taylor Swift can somewhat address that "issue" by going on insanely long tours that sample a crazy broad geographic range, but not so much in sport. Attending a professional baseball game is an almost magical event to me. The nice stadiums really are the cathedrals of our society in a way and it's just a special experience. I wish all fans could experience it. But a lot of them never do and yet maintain extreme fandom.

 

Sorry for the semi-random post. I'm in pontification mode. 

[Orioles Jim]

2 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Right now on StubHub there are tickets for $10.

In the end I got one for $9, fees included, off TickPick.com

[Sports Guy]

24 minutes ago, Orioles Jim said:

In the end I got one for $9, fees included, off TickPick.com

So glad that’s a “T”

[backwardsk]

8 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

If people are saying "$24 for a beer is insane, but I can always just lump that in with the rest of my crippling credit card debt" the situation may be more dire than I thought.

But then again, I've also read the the average new car transaction in 2023 was $47k, and 10-year loans are not uncommon. So I guess a lot of people figure they can just roll the loans over until they die...

That’s exactly what I was thinking about. I see these videos of people claiming to have $1200-$1500 car notes.  Dropping $100 on beer at a ballgame probably doesn’t make a lot of people hesitate.

[DenPA2002]

We’ve gone to 2 Monday games and one Tuesday game.

Ive gotten tickets for $37 apiece after fees in section 52 and then Move up a few rows to all the empty seats. Amazing seats to watch a game.

This last Monday I paid $65 apiece for section 52 vs the yanks. People from NY paid $100 off SeatGeek. He said that these seats in NY would be $500 apiece.

Ticket prices are pretty cheap for Os games right now. And on a Monday you could buy a cheaper seat and then move closer if you really wanted to. 

Now food prices are a different story. Just buy a hoagie somewhere and bring it in. 

Looking at the Toronto Monday, sec 52 is way cheaper than it was for the Yankees. Sec 59 is $19 on SeatGeek including fees.

you can make it affordable but I don’t pay for parking in Timonium and I have passes for the light rail.

 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

9 hours ago, Orioles Jim said:

In the end I got one for $9, fees included, off TickPick.com

I wasn't aware of this website. I'm going to check it out when I have time to make it to OPACY this season.