I got free tickets to a sporting event this weekend.  It seems sports league are now giving tickets away in a desperate attempt to get some bodies in the door.   I went to a baseball game this weekend and I couldn’t help but wonder why people put up with the insanity.
First, I had to pay $15 for parking.  No big deal I thought since the tickets were “free” but that was the first expense.   Fortunately, I ate dinner before I went otherwise I would have been in for some steep expenses.   Beer is sold for $8 for about 12 oz container.   Peanuts $4.50.  Cotton Candy $5 (which I did buy for my kid that went with me).  Bottled water $4.  Food ranges from $8 to $15 for less than appetizing food.

It is ironic that a few days ago I had read this article on Bloomberg regarding the Cowboy’s $1.15 Billion Stadium:

But success in business or sports doesn’t mean success in food. And junk food, however unambitious, has to at least taste good. Consider the hamburger, a gray patty with no char, a chewy, rubbery texture and unidentifiable cheese. The chili dog ($5.50) was a mealy abomination.

Tex-Mex fare should reach its microwavable apex in Texas. It doesn’t over here. Reasonably tasty flautas ($8) were filled with cheese (again, couldn’t tell what kind) and intense chicken flavor, but weren’t any better than the taquitos available at 7- Eleven. Beef fajita tacos ($8.50) were dry and stringy.

I can’t tell you if the food at the stadium I went to was this bad but from the looks of it and the people in the arena I can surmise it was as bad.   Of course, the expense issue wasn’t the only thing.   The seats were way to small and I admit, I’m a bit overweight but no where near the whales that were sitting in the seats watching the game.  I think too many of the spectators have been eating way too much beef chili cheese fried nachos because most of the people were squeezing into their seats.

But my misery didn’t stop there, every five minutes people were getting up and obstructing my view.   People were either buying beer or food and then getting up to digest said food and beer.   I swear, at least two guys got up 8 times during the first 7 innings of the game.  I missed three plays because these guys were getting up and blocking my view to go take a wiz.

But wait there’s more!   I was fortunate enough to be in a row with very few people on it and most of the row in front and behind me were fairly empty but for other rows that were packed, I couldn’t help notice all the people sneezing and coughing all over the place.   WARNING TO ALL STADIUMS, you better have some protocol in place if the flu breaks out this season because there will be a PANIC and you will desperately need a bailout.  I would suggest handing out sanitizer and/or sterile wipes to patrons before you go begging Uncle Sam for a bailout.

We left at the 8th inning to avoid all the drunks on the road but I still had to put up with the misery that is traffic.     The ONLY reason I went was because I was given great seats (or so I thought) and they were FREE but FREE cost me $20+gas that night.  After the experience, I just kept asking myself why people put up with it?

People must really love these sports teams to put up with all that crap but they must not be loving them all that much, at its peak, the stadium was only about 40% capacity and that was with plenty of FREE tickets being given away.   It’s a whole new paradigm and I seriously don’t know how these teams will survive a flu pandemic during the season if it happens.