Spending less on food at the ballpark

I know that people often like to (incorrectly, in my opinion) compare park food prices to ball park food prices. Well, turns out people are spending less on that as well...

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=5273569

Buy me a peanut (just one) and cracker jack.
I always liked stadium dogs, but old park footlongs with chili were better.
;)

I don't think that Wrigley is "relatively expensive" as far as venues go. In fact, if you show up early for the game, the concessions are half price (except beer) until 1/2 hour before game time, IIRC from when I was there to watch the Pirates lose in a different environment two seasons ago.

PNC Park has two "Buccaroo's" stands, intended for children, but anyone can purchase stuff there. They have smaller portions and cost way less. You can get a personal pan pizza for $2. Pretzels, ice cream, and nachos are $1. The thing is, the portions aren't that much smaller. For example, a 12 ounce Pepsi is $1. At the other vendors, a 20 ounce Pepsi is $4.

Only thing that sucks is they don't serve beer for the kiddies. :)

You can bring in food to a ballpark from the outside. It's much different than an amusement park.

Food and beverage (even beer!) sales are down this year at the race track I'm Media Director for as well.

I'm hearing similar things from other tracks in the Midwest.

Our prices are well below what you pay at amusement parks or ballparks and that doesn't seem to have an effect.

People just aren't spending the cash once they're in the gate.

^Because they are spending it to drive there.

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Spinout said:
You can bring in food to a ballpark from the outside. It's much different than an amusement park.

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Really? What ballparks have you been going to? Busch Stadium and Kauffmann Stadium only allow you to bring in water bottles and "special dietary" foods

Swoosh: Both Nationals Park (DC) and Camden Yards (B'more) allow you to take (certain) food/drinks into the ballparks. I too found this odd, but it's so common that you have street vendors right outside of the gates selling peanuts for about half the price inside.

There are some restrictions (e.g. no outside beer), but you could certainly pack enough food for the three hours you'll be there. Me personally though, I *choose* to eat in the parks as it's 'part of the experience'.
lata, jeremy

Yep, I have taken Peanuts into Jacobs Field in Cleveland and Dolphins Stadium in Miami. Never had a problem with that.

Not sure if this was the kind of race track Brad G was talking about, but here goes.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080630/lf_nm_life/economy_usa_nascar_dc_5

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Swoosh said:

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Spinout said:
You can bring in food to a ballpark from the outside. It's much different than an amusement park.

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Really? What ballparks have you been going to? Busch Stadium and Kauffmann Stadium only allow you to bring in water bottles and "special dietary" foods

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Wrigley Field. You can bring in Taco Bell drinks, and tacos. Also brought in peanuts tons of times.

I can see peanuts, when you said "food" I thought you meant REAL FOOD.

Spinout, Wrigley might be different considering its location right smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood. IDK why anyone want to go to that ballpark in the first place, but that's a whole 'nother discussion ;)

Back when the Pirates played in Three Rivers, we used to stop at Primanti's to grab a couple of steak, egg, & cheese sandwiches. No problems bringing it in and eating it there. This was more than a decade ago, now, though. Things may have changed.

You can bring in sealed bottles of water and things like peanuts into PNC Park.

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Swoosh said:
Really? What ballparks have you been going to? Busch Stadium and Kauffmann Stadium only allow you to bring in water bottles and "special dietary" foods

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My family split a suite at Busch Stadium with some friends a few weeks ago and between everybody, we brought in a whole bunch of food. Fresh fruit, vegetables, dip, cheese, salami, crackers, brownies, cookies, rice crispy treats and even several bags of Gus's pretzels. This isn't counting all of the food that we brought for our toddler and what the others brought for their children as well.

None of the food was hidden in order to get it into the park. In fact most was brought in grocery bags. The people checking the bags aren't the ones checking the tickets, so I doubt that it mattered that we were headed to a suite.

While I had food items confiscated at the old Busch, I have never had a single word said to me at the new Busch and I bring in food to just about every game I go to (usually Salcissia Pretzels from Gus's, yummy!).

Can't bring much of anything into US Cellular Field in Chicago, but I'm not complaining. Just over a buck more than what you spend at Portillo's gets you a Polish w/ grilled onions that you simply won't find anywhere else. The quality/variety of food at the Cell shames any park (sport/theme) I've been to outside of perhaps the Florida parks. That's why I don't mind dropping $10-$15 a visit at the ballpark. Different story for theme parks.

It's fun to watch championship baseball while eating delicious food.

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eightdotthree said:
You can bring in sealed bottles of water and things like peanuts into PNC Park.

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At the Bucs/Yankees game last week I brought in four footlong Subway subs. As long as it can fit under your seat, you can bring it in to PNC Park. The only exception is that the only drink you can bring in is unopened bottles of water.

They still made their money since I spent 28 bucks on beer, though.