Fenway Park beer among most pricey

from Weekend - April 13, 2023

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IT’S APRIL AND THAT means baseball is back. While the grand old game underwent some notable changes in the offseason (pitch clock to speed games up, increased base size to encourage more steals), one thing that didn’t change was the rather large dent that attending a game can put in your bank account. If you’re a beer fan, certain ballparks can increase that sting quite a bit.

A new analysis by NJ.bet, an online casino and betting promotional offers site, looked at several categories in order to rank all 29 MLB stadiums. Beer prices were one of the factors, and I’m sure it’s no surprise to Red Sox fan that Fenway Park didn’t do well on that score.

Baseball’s oldest stadium features the seventh-highest average beer price, coming in at $9.50. At least Fenway fans can take some small comfort that they aren’t buying brews at the New York Mets Citi Field, where an average beer costs a whopping $12. Oddly, a beer at Yankee Stadium across town only costs half that much on average.

On the other end of the scale, beers at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, will only set you back a measly $3. Then again, I’m guessing the vast majority of beers there come from the brewery of the same name.

And that might be the rub with these wildly varying prices: I would guess that the more craft beer a park serves, the higher the prices are likely to be. I haven’t been to Fenway since last July, when my former editor Ray Kelly and I attended a fantastic Paul McCartney concert, but I was able to get a Lord Hobo 617. A quick peek at Untappd.com shows that Fenway also has featured beers such as Fiddlehead IPA, Mighty

Squirrel’s Cloud Candy, Cisco’s Grey Lady Wheat Ale, among others. There are also usually a few Sam Adams offerings on hand. It certainly wasn’t always like that. I can recall even in the early 2000s, Sam Adams Boston Lager was the only craft beer option. The most common price in this survey is $5, with nine parks coming in at that average price point. Nine parks also feature beers for $9 or more on average, while three stadiums are super cheap, averaging less than $5: Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field at $4.99, Los Angeles Angels Angel Stadim at $4.50, and the aforementioned Coors Field.

In terms of affordability, Fenway Park ranks as the least affordable ballpark, with the Red Sox rivals’ Yankee Stadium ranked third-least affordable. (The Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field is sandwiched between them at No. 2.) However, Fenway comes in at an impressive No. 8 as far as best overall park. Unfortunately for Sox fans, Yankee Stadium comes in at No. 5. Then again, the new Yankee Stadium was just built in 2009 and Fenway dates back to 1912. So coming in at No. 8 isn’t too shabby.

I have to assume those pricey beers contributed heavily to Fenway coming in a few places behind Yankee Stadium.

APRIL 13TH – 15TH GREG