Ballpark Prices Are No “Homerun”

June 7th, 2007 | email this | digg it | trackback | comment RSS feed

Published in Rants

Everyday in my AP Economics class, the phrase “Higher demand, higher prices” was burned into my mind. However, this wasn’t the end of the phrase; usually “But with more demand, comes a higher amount of supply and competitors, thus the price falls” followed directly after.

However, what if that second quote wasn’t included in our economic system? What if the phrase ended at “Higher demand, higher prices,” with no hopeful follow-up?

Behold… my dilemma of last night. I went a Texas Rangers game (for those of you who don’t know who they are, the Texas Rangers are an American League, Major League Baseball team… currently the second worst team ), and while standing in line for a delectable powdered sugar funnel cake, I noticed something that is hard to come across nowadays- a market with extreme demand, yet no outside competition… the “Ballpark Food Distribution” industry. In a way, this actually scared me.

What keeps a major organization from raising their prices of alcohol and food, when the customers are usually drunken, belligerent, willing-to-pay-anything-for-a-brewsky consumers? Fans will keep coming regardless of the price, and they’ll keep paying absurd amounts for these perishable items, as seen in the past.

Now, the prices in the picture above may be a little extreme , but here’s a comparison of prices from the Ballpark to those of 7-Eleven (a local convienient store). The recorded prices are all before tax:

44 oz Large Drink:

Ballpark: $5.00 7-Eleven: $0.99

16 oz Bottled Beer:

Ballpark: $6.50 7-Eleven: 40 oz bottle of Bud Ice- $2.39

Bag of “Cracker Jacks” (both similar net weight):

Ballpark: $4.50 7-Eleven: $0.99

Until now, I always accepted the inane price of ballpark food, and that angers me. It angers me that the money-hungry ballpark concession owners have tricked society into believing that ballpark prices are just, and should be practiced without question or concern.

I guess I’ll just have to stick it to “The Man” by bringing my own dinner and drinks to the game