The Chron did a story yesterday on the concession policies of the Houston Astros. The important thing to emerge from the story is that the Astros are the only team in major league baseball that does not allow fans to bring in their own food or drinks. That’s right, out of 30 teams in the majors, 29 teams, including the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago Cubs, allow their fans to bring in their own food and bypass the overpriced stadium concessions.
The Astros claim that this allows them to keep their ticket prices low. But when you look at the Team Marketing Report for April of 2009, you can’t help but notice that, even with this concessions policy, the Astros still charge more than the major-league average, and that their ticket prices are still among the highest in the majors. So if Drayton McLane thinks he’s doing the fans a favor, maybe he ought to start rethinking things a bit.
The Astros also place the blame on Aramark. The Astros claim that their
relationship with Aramark is premised on exclusivity of food and
beverages. But seeing as how Aramark provides concession services for many MLB teams, you’ve got to question this assertion seeing as how the Astros seem to be the only team stuck with exclusivity.
Drayton also claims that Houston tradition demands that food must only be purchased inside the stadium. And if there’s a
stupider excuse, I can’t think of one. I’ve traveled across the
country, and I’ve been to a majority of MLB’s stadiums. And I’ll tell
you about tradition. Tradition is fans gathering on the streets around
Camden Yards in Baltimore and purchasing cheap-but-excellent food and
bringing them into the stadium. Tradition is a New York Yankee fan
sharing home-roasted peanuts with a Boston Red Sox fan during a game at
Yankee Stadium. Tradition means that with excellent food options
available just outside the gates the in-stadium vendor must do a better
job of providing not only multiple food options, but also providing
high-quality food options.
The fan experience at Minute Maid
Park is the worst that I’ve experienced. The food is awful and
overpriced. Parking is inconvenient and expensive, and cheap public
transit is nearly non-existent. Once in your seat you’re constantly
blasted with way too loud music, and the sound system makes the
fantastic Bob Ford nearly unintelligible. If you get stuck in a seat up
by the roof, you’re in for a night of extreme heat because there’s no
other place for the hot air to go. And there’s the awful product on the
field.
Drayton McLane often talks about the fans, but as always,
his actions don’t back up his words. The low-priced tickets are
actually among the highest in baseball. The vendor who demands
exclusivity apparently only demands that privilege from the Astros
because it provides the same services to other stadiums without having
exclusivity.
McLane has often treated the fans as if they’re idiots. It’s time for this to stop.
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2009.
