Does anything say summer more than going to a game and having a hot dog or two or twenty!!
- Image via Wikipedia
There is a new trend at ball parks and arenas this year, buy a ticket and get all you can eat on select concessions. Good idea? Sure. Good for you? Umm, no.
Typically when you get one of these all you can eat deals you get food like hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, soda, lemonade and ice cream. Some ball parks have acquiesced and added salads. In one NHL arena, the package includes all you can drink alcohol. Not exactly a murders row of nutrition here.
Now why would a ball park do it? At $5 or more for a dog, wouldn’t they lose money on this deal? The answer appears to be a resounding no. Teams are setting aside hard to sell sections and turning them into baseball with a buffet. The result has been huge. A double A baseball team, think two levels below the majors, is 4th in the league in attendance and they sell all you can eat with 90% of their tickets. Need more proof, the Arizona Diamondbacks increased ticket sales by 70% in left field when they included the all you can eat.
Now look, I recently wrote a post on a company that is producing a hamburger served between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches, you can read that article here. In this post I asked if there was any social responsibility of the company in not making this pile of junk.
I will ask the same question here. Are we setting people up to fail? How many of us have been to a buffet and exercised restraint?
Just because you can eat 15 hot dogs, 6 plates of nachos, 3 ice creams and wash it all down with 14 sodas, should you?
If you would like to read an excellent Sports Illustrated article it is here
