This column first appeared in Looped In NYC, a newsletter to help New Yorkers make sense of the city. Sign up to get the email which also features event listings, NYC news to know and a reader photos.
On a beautiful summer day, when the wind is blowing just right, there is nothing better than a baseball game. But the Great American Pastime can also be the Great American Money Pit. By some estimates, baseball tickets have never been more expensive.
It’s not just the ticket prices, either. One trip to the concession stand and team store later, and I’m suddenly out $65.
So for this week’s “Looped In,” we set out to answer the question burning in the back of many New Yorkers’ minds: Is it still actually possible to have a cheap night at the ballpark?
A few things to note about our investigation:
1. We just looked into the Major League teams, but you can always catch one of the minor leaguers, like the Brooklyn Cyclones or Staten Island FerryHawks, for cheaper.
2. We approach every story with objectivity, so of course we had to go to both a Yankees and a Mets game.
The Yankees game
For both teams, weeknight tickets are typically cheaper. On StubHub, a ticket resale site, we scored Wednesday night tickets to see the Yankees square off against the Toronto Blue Jays for just $11.13.
Pro-tip: Bring your dinner! The MLB famously allows people to bring their own food into ballparks, and this rule applies across the league. And because of a torrential downpour, the game was delayed two hours, giving me ample time to hunt for a bite to eat in The Bronx. I landed on Eating Tree, a Jamaican restaurant about a block away from the park, where I got a chicken combo platter – heaped with rice and peas, jerk chicken, plantains, and cabbage for $10.89, plus tip, which brought my total up to $11.32.
I also browsed outside the ballpark for a cheap beer. After a few stops at local staples like Billy’s Bar, I found nothing cheaper than $8 and quickly gave up on the idea. Instead, I bought a $1 water bottle outside the stadium. Yankee Stadium lets people bring in sealed plastic water bottles and soft-sided drink containers, like juice boxes or milk cartons. (No cans or glass.) With that, I headed inside.
That brought my total at Yankee Stadium up to $23.45 – less than the cost of a trip to the movies, with soda and popcorn. But, there was a twist: Once we finally got to our seats in section 433, we discovered our seats were in an alcohol-free section of the ballpark. I couldn’t get a beer, even if I tried.
The Mets game
Less than a week later, we took the 7 train to Citi Field, where the Mets were set to play the Cincinnati Reds. The cheapest available tickets were slightly more expensive for this game: $14.49 on a Tuesday.
Whereas Yankee Stadium is surrounded by shops, vendors and restaurants, Citi Field is surrounded by a parking lot, so you don’t have as many options to pick up from nearby eateries. Ballpark food felt like the only choice.
But luckily, The Mets run a $5 Tuesday deal for all regular-season home games. This means staples like a Coors Light, popcorn boxes, hot dogs, soft pretzels, fountain drinks, and water bottles are only $5, whereas you pay around $7 for these on other nights. For dinner, I opted for a ballpark special: a beer, a hot dog and some popcorn. With tax, I paid $16.40 and chowed down at my seat during the first pitch.
An added perk of our trip to Citi Field was an unexpected free T-shirt. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Met’s 1986 World Series win, the first 15,000 attendees got shirts with the words “WORLD CHAMPIONS” emblazoned on the front. I’m not going to lie, it made me feel pretty cool, even though there was a big corporate logo on the back.
Food and all, I spent $30.89 at Citi Field. It’s marginally more than I spent at Yankee Stadium, but with a beer and free T-shirt.
Team allegiances aside, the penny pinching crown on this set of trips goes to the Bronx Bombers. But, both the Yankees and the Mets lost, so is there really a winner?
