Baseball food: lots of it!
March 8, 2008
Yesterday’s USA Today had a front page story on the latest method for selling bad seats at baseball games: raise the price and give people all they can eat. According to the Aramark manager at Atlanta’s Turner field, the typical customer takes 3.35 hot dogs, one 20-oz soda, one 7.9 bag of peanuts, one 3-oz nachos, and 32 oz popcorn. Anyone want to take a stab at adding up the calories? Hint: a 20-oz soda is 275.
3.35 footlongs - 1575
20 oz soda - 275
7.9 oz peanuts - 1313
3 oz nachos - 828
popcorn (substituted medium movie popcorn) - 951
total - 4,942
(More calories than I eat in 3 days!)
Comment by succubus — March 8, 2008 @ 4:52 pm
Oy vey. I need a calculator.
All that salt and only one soda?
Any antacids included in that travel package?
Comment by Sheila — March 8, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
OK, it’s bad, but let’s not exaggerate to make it worse. I get a little about 3,200 calories.
Peanuts sold at the ballpark are, of course, in the shell, which would lower the calorie content, because they contain less edible food. I don’t know by how much, though. Let’s say maybe 1000 calories?
I’ve never seen a footlong hotdog at Fenway Park - we have Fenway Franks, which have 170 calories each, plus the nutritionally bereft white flour buns, which the USDA tells me would be about 120 calories each. So I get 290 calories each, times 3.35, or 971. Round up to 1100 for ketchup and other condiments.
Four cups (32 oz by volume, surely we’re not thinking weight!) of oil-popped popcorn is 220 calories. Add 2 tablespoons of butter for an additional 200 calories. That’s 420. Round up to 500, even 600, to be generous.
We also shouldn’t assume that people eat all they take. The peanuts, which have the highest calorie punch of all, could be taken home and saved for later; and there is also, of course, the issue of waste. I bet people are much more likely to take more food than they can eat because it’s included in the price of their tickets, and if this is offered only in the cheap seats, we have a pretty cost-conscious fan, right? But assuming one did eat the whole thing, that would be:
franks -n-buns - 1100
soda - 275
peanuts - 1000
nachos - 257
popcorn - 600
So I get 3,232 calories.
Sources:
Calorie King:
http://www.calorieking.com
USDA: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/.
But whether we’re talking 3000 calories or 5000, let me play the Devil’s Advocate. Who goes to the ballpark every day? What’s wrong with an occasional indulgence? I’m more worried about the people who eat 1,200 calorie carbohydrate- and trans fat-bomb fast food meals every day.
Comment by Migraineur — March 9, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
Actually what he said was that the typical all-you-can-eat customer consumed that amount. Presumeably those who pay per item eat way less.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2008-03-06-Concessions_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
Comment by robin — March 10, 2008 @ 1:22 am
Let’s just hope that this is unusual, like Thanksgiving or feasting at weddings–
Comment by Fentry — March 10, 2008 @ 7:29 pm