How can beer cost more than a hockey ticket?
Quick Facts:
- A 16 ounce beer can cost you $9.72 at a Montreal Canadian game
- Some sports arenas had 100% of their food vendors violating local food safety rules (Verizon Center, Washington D.C. and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg)
- You should eat before you go to watch a sports event
Ok so beer isn’t quite that expensive…yet. But if you were to drink enough of it, say a beer per period, and managed to get a “cheap” ticket to a hockey game, it could very well amount to more than the hockey ticket itself. This probably is true for other sports events including baseball, football, and basketball. A 20-ounce beer at Yankee stadium has been reported to cost over $10, still a better deal than the 16-ounce beer in Montreal. I was reading an article on Yahoo! Sports about the price about beer in hockey arenas and they linked to this pdf file released by teammarketing.com, take a look, it’s disturbing. Because the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup last year, they’ve increased their prices on average by 20.2%. That’s a hefty price increase.
It’s also too bad that we Canadians have to pay so much to go and watch a hockey game. As a kid, my dad and I had half season tickets and they would set you back around $700-800. That was for 15-20 games and now you could barely get one luxury seat ticket for that price and it’d probably have to be against Nashville. It’s been way too long since a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup and the high prices aren’t really paying off obviously.
According to an ESPN report, some sports arenas in North America aren’t doing so well with food safety rules. As I listed in the quick facts, Verizon Center and Tropicana Field had 100% of their food vendors violating local food safety. What does that mean? Well, every time you walk up to buy you $6 hotdog and $9 beer, you vendor might not have washed their hands, cooked your food properly, not stored your food properly, or even better, have mouse droppings in the facility.
It’s amazing how I always listen to sportscasters complimenting the food in the stadium that they’re in. Sure the Poutine that is oozing with grease and oil with enough cheese on them that weighs the same as a 2 year old tastes good, but is it safe and good for you? Hmm…
So the moral of the story? Try and eat before you go to the game, if you can’t resist than try opting for something relatively healthy. If you’re taking your kids to the game than this is even more important. I’m sure you’ve heard of what obesity does to us humans and food at a sports arena definitely is not going to help us bring the obesity population down.
Hockey Beer photo by iwona_kellie on Flickr.
