As every ports fan knows, one of the worst parts about going to a professional sporting event is the concession stand prices. You spend hundreds of dollars on a ticket, just to spend an additional $20 on chicken fingers or nachos and then $12 on water.
But there are exceptions.
The Masters is not just known for being the biggest golf tournament in the world, but also for keeping its traditions in concession stand pricing. The cost of a ticket starts around $100, but the most expensive food on the menu is a $3 pimento cheese sandwich.
Even though the tournament’s affordable food prices are a tradition, the Augusta National Golf Club does it for another reason: the sale of merchandise. With food being so cheap, they sell 10 million dollars in merchandise per day and 70 million for the whole week.
Now sports franchises have started to see this and implement it, starting with the Atlanta Falcons. The team slashed their prices of hot dogs from $8 to $2, soda from $5 to $2 which includes refills. In total the prices came down nearly 50% from 2017. The Falcons realized that the concession stands are only a small part of their revenue compared to merchandise. Since this change, total revenue in merchandise sales have been up 30% and total number of items purchased in the team store was up 20%.
The first NBA team to do this was the Atlanta Hawks, who saw different results than the Falcons did. They decreased their prices by as much as 50%, but not only did they see a huge jump in merchandise– the amount of concession stand revenue went up over 15%.
These are not the only franchises to do this. The Utah Jazz, Utah Hockey Club, Phoenix Suns, Baltimore Orioles, and the College Football Playoff championship match, which was played at the Falcons stadium, have followed suit.
With costs of ticket, parking and apparel seemingly always increasing, concessions are becoming more affordable across different sports and venues is surely a welcome development for fans.
The prices of tickets and parking are things that will always continue to go up. The least these sports franchises can do is make something affordable. Last year during March Madness, I attended four games at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, where a single bottle of water set me back $15.
I agree with the franchises that are lowering the price of food and drinks and I think the science behind it is perfect. If I were to go to a NBA or MLB game and see that I could get a whole meal for $10, I would feel that I am saving money. With that feeling, I would go buy merchandise, which is something that would not happen if I was spending $30 on a meal.
Every team should implement the low concession stand prices. Not only would it bring in more money within concession and merchandise but will make their fan bases much happier.
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