I don't know if this has been discussed here before, but Chipper Jones's twitter feed is one of the greatest things ever. I only wish he had started a year or two ago.

[1] I tried to spark a discussion about it on a previous thread. Don't remember when it was or what the tweet was, but I remember reading it and re-reading it for at least 15 minutes before I could figure out what he was saying.

I'm sure the Braves fan is hurt.

Come on Atlanta! The Ted was a morgue tonite.

Well yeah, Tommy Hanson was pitching.

Millionaire athletes are out of touch with what an MLB game costs the average person. The last game I went to, two good seats, parking, food, and gas ran me $210 dollars. And that was just two people. There aren't many families who can drop $300-400 several times a year to take the family to a game.

Chipper, I love you, but paying your salary ain't cheap on the working class.

The last game I went to, two good seats, parking, food, and gas ran me $210 dollars.

Stub Hub is your friend. And believe it or not, MARTA. Use them and save a lot of money.

Well yeah, Tommy Hanson was pitching.

QFT.

Chipper, buddy, I love ya. But I don't root for WildCard teams.

Millionaire athletes are out of touch with what an MLB game costs the average person. The last game I went to, two good seats, parking, food, and gas ran me $210 dollars. And that was just two people. There aren't many families who can drop $300-400 several times a year to take the family to a game.

Parking at Turner Field is $12. I'll assume you live within 50 miles of the ballpark, so at 25 MPG that's 4 gallons of gas or another $16. If you each got a hot dog and a drink, that's another $20. So, I gather you spent about $80 each on your tickets.

Next time:
- Don't sit in the most expensive seats in the ballpark
- Eat before/after the game
- Don't sit in the most expensive seats in the ballpark
- As suggested above, try Stub Hub (tickets are usually more than half-off for low demand games)
- Don't sit in the most expensive seats in the ballpark

Parking at Turner Field is $12. I'll assume you live within 50 miles of the ballpark, so at 25 MPG that's 4 gallons of gas or another $16. If you each got a hot dog and a drink, that's another $20. So, I gather you spent about $80 each on your tickets.

Next time:
- Don't sit in the most expensive seats in the ballpark
- Eat before/after the game
- Don't sit in the most expensive seats in the ballpark
- As suggested above, try Stub Hub (tickets are usually more than half-off for low demand games)
- Don't sit in the most expensive seats in the ballpark

Agreed, there is no reason that a couple should spend over $100 at the park, including tickets, unless they want to.

If you decide to make a night out of it, sure you can run up a pretty expensive bill quickly, but realistically, a couple of sodas, parking and tickets is all that needs to be spent.

Coors Field: One dollar "Senior rockpile tickets" Never sat out there. Wander around for three hours watching the game and checking out chicks. Best deal in the world.

Agreed, there is no reason that a couple should spend over $100 at the park, including tickets, unless they want to.

If you decide to make a night out of it, sure you can run up a pretty expensive bill quickly, but realistically, a couple of sodas, parking and tickets is all that needs to be spent.

Hell, I've gotten upper reserve tickets at Dodger Stadium for less than a buck on Stubhub, plus the $10 in service fees. I ate tacos in Echo Park and parked my car alongside Academy and walked in to avoid paying $10 more. I got there early enough that I was able to enter on field level and stayed there throughout the game, had to get a Coke too, so for something like $15 total I'm sitting near the back of a section behind home plate and enjoying the game - cheaper than a movie. Those service fees are once per order, not once per ticket, so if you bring more people, it's even cheaper. Who knows if other stadiums are this simple, but it's worth trying to figure out.

Hard for me to get to the games, since I live in Indiana, but what 4 said. Tommy Hanson is tedious and boring to watch. There's no entertainment there.

Chipper - layoff....it's college football time! You should know that after 20 years in the ATL.

Braves attendance last night was about 50 percent more than the A's drew against the Angels, an important game against a division rival. And, having been there, I say that the 11,000-whatever they announced for the A's game exaggerated the number of fannies in seats. Concessions weren't even open in the corners.

The Nats have a $5 "grandstand" day-of-game ticket for the last two sections in the 400 level on the left-field side. Not the greatest seats, but at least you're in the park and I'd rather sit there than in the upper deck in right.

There was some local gnashing of teeth about having only 17K at Nats Park on Tuesday, but school started Tuesday in the Virginia suburbs, people are just settling in after the Labor Day holiday (probably true throughout MLB), and even Cubs fans aren't stupid enough to want to watch this retooling team.

Eh, post #5 has a point though. If you make a day of it, take the family as a twice yearly "event" type of thing, it's very easy to run up $200+ for a family of four. Not many people with wife and kids are going to hump it 2 miles to the stadium(to save $15 on parking) and then tell their kids, "sorry, but no, you CAN'T have a hot dog, peanuts or crackerjacks" You can't expect kids to be happy standing around a concourse for 3 hours trying to watch a game.

Sure, if 4 blokes head off to a sporting event, happy to wait day of game to get discount tix, eat local fair 9 blocks away and happy to walk 2 miles to game, then you can escape the higher costs associated with this sort of activity.

You just need to consider who you are with and how they may want to experience a ball game.

Eh, post #5 has a point though. If you make a day of it, take the family as a twice yearly "event" type of thing, it's very easy to run up $200+ for a family of four. Not many people with wife and kids are going to hump it 2 miles to the stadium(to save $15 on parking) and then tell their kids, "sorry, but no, you CAN'T have a hot dog, peanuts or crackerjacks" You can't expect kids to be happy standing around a concourse for 3 hours trying to watch a game.

But then don't complain about the high cost. If you make a day of six flags or something else, you could end up spending a large amount of money also. You are choosing to spend the money lavishly, one of the things about spending lavishly, is you give up the right to complain about the costs. At the same time, you don't have to make a day out of it, it's cheap enough that realistically speaking most fans could go about once every other week to a game and not feel any financial hardship out of a reasonable time at the stadium.

And when people say that other entertainment, like movies cost less, well true, but do you really have the same potential emotional uplift that you are going to get from a sporting event in which you are vested in the outcome? I don't think that I've ever been to a movie where I'm high fiveing strangers.

I'm both poor and a skinflint, and I go to about dozen games a year. I sit in the outfield. It's not the greatest, but whatever. And I grew up being told "no, you can't have . . ." all the time. It was made clear to me that it wasn't to be mean, it was because of the cost, whether by necessity or choice. I internalized that lesson, and now I'm able to enjoy myself quite a bit on a very low budget. Obviously it has to be done the right way, but saying "no" to kids can sure be a good idea!

If you make a day of it, take the family as a twice yearly "event" type of thing, it's very easy to run up $200+ for a family of four.

You can get really good seats for $15 on StubHub. I'm talking 200 section just off home plate good. $130+ for food and any souvenirs is not a realistic amount.

Sure, if 4 blokes head off to a sporting event, happy to wait day of game to get discount tix, eat local fair 9 blocks away and happy to walk 2 miles to game, then you can escape the higher costs associated with this sort of activity.

That's not an option at Turner Field, unless you want to buy crack.

I don't know if I should feel impressed or sad that nobody has mentioned beer. Beer is expensive as all hell at most stadiums. Yes, you can go without it. But then again, I don't want to. And that's I think the point that was being made. You have to make significant compromises to enjoy a game at the park. It's much cheaper to watch it at home. And then you also get to see replays of close plays.

Also, if I'm going to a baseball game I want good seats. As in, the worst I want are lower level seats in the outfield or along the lines, which for weekend/summer series or series for good teams are like $25/ticket. If you enjoy sitting in the upper deck or walking around all game every time you go to the stadium, that's fine. But as James Vanderbeek would say, I don't want your life.

No, no mention of beer, but crack's been proposed.

Everything is so much cheaper at minor league games. Cheap tickets, mostly free parking, cheaper food, cheaper beer. You can probably take a family of 4 for $75.

Thanks for the tips about StubHub. I live two hours from Atlanta so that runs my cost up in terms of gas. I suppose I could be more savvy when it comes to optimizing my cost to go to a game instead of generalizing it to be a wallet buster.

Everything is so much cheaper at minor league games. Cheap tickets, mostly free parking, cheaper food, cheaper beer. You can probably take a family of 4 for $75.

Yup.
Just recently, Amazing GF was trying to talk me into a hiking trip to the Tetons.... she'd found a cheap flight to Montana (Amazing GF's travel plans tend to the complex). Anyway, part of her sales pitch was, "And we can go to a minor-league game in Helena!" $9 seats right behind home plate, "Milk Monday" (cheap milk and cookies at the concessions), $6 for a huge platter of nachos, and it was also 25-cent hot dog night! Parking was free. Souvenir magnet was free. Between-innings entertainment, including kids racing on the field, etc., free. Live organ player, free.
So we got to see Raul Mondesi Jr. gank a flyball, and my-pick-for-future-star Julio Morillo, all for the TOTAL of, what, $35 or a little less. Good stuff.

If you make a day of it, take the family as a twice yearly "event" type of thing

If you make a day of almost anything with the family, it's going to get expensive pretty quickly. 2 adults and 2 kids at the movies will pretty easily top $50, and you haven't even killed 2 hours.

Also, if I'm going to a baseball game I want good seats

This, along with beer, are expensive wherever you go out to. This isn't a baseball problem.

And of course, every team that has a bunch of empty seats will offer great deals on seats/concessions. If you want to do a cheaper night, you can almost certainly do it. Especially for a team with a half-filled stadium.

If you enjoy sitting in the upper deck or walking around all game every time you go to the stadium, that's fine. But as James Vanderbeek would say, I don't want your life.

I find I enjoy upper deck behind home plate or above the infield a lot more than field level way down the foul line.

#17, oh I wasn't complaining about the cost, just pointing out the realities of doing the family thing sometimes for a ball game. Hell mate, I've got 5 kids, so everywhere I go is expensive...but it was my choice to have heaps of kids so fortunately I earn a decent wage and can do a ballgame either on the cheap or pricey.

As long as I'm at any game, I'm happy. And yeah, I like to have a beer or two at the game also, so there's another $15 at least!

As for the flicks, yeah, take 5 kids to a film in Sydney sometime. Kids tix are nearly $14 here(and I have teenagers, so those are full price), I can spend nearly $100 on movie tix alone. We, however, never buy food at the theatre. We always bring in our own lollies and such.

And Vaux, I say no to my kids all the time. If you don't, they'd be insufferable.

Chipper - layoff....it's college football time! You should know that after 20 years in the ATL.

Really. He should know better than anyone how much Braves fans suck. Baseball should be somehow working to make sure the Braves/Cardinals coin flip game ends up in St.Louis just for the atmosphere. Nobody want to start this awesome (note, sarcasm) new playoff experiment in a two thirds full Turner Field.

In almost any MLB park, you can get tremendous seats for relatively little, as long as you're smart about picking them. A good rule of thumb is to realize that in most parks, the first two or three rows of the upper deck offer a much better view than the back rows of the lower deck -- and they usually cost less than half the price, too.

My parents took me to a tremendous number of concerts, ball games, movies, et cetera. It was a pretty effing great way to grow up. We weren't rich, but we were able to do all that stuff by cutting out the unnecessary expenses -- mainly food and beverages. I was raised on the principle that if you avoid the high-priced concessions at such events, you will be able to go to twice as many of them. To this day, I don't buy popcorn at the movies, don't buy beer at a ball game, and I'm perfectly content. I don't even think about it. I bring a water bottle with me and maybe some Cracker Jacks or a bag of jerky, and I don't feel like I'm missing a damn thing.

Also, let's face it, baseball is expensive everywhere, and yet most teams don't have fans as lame as Atlanta's. Chipper does have a point.

Also, while baseball is expensive, it's far, far less expensive than any other major league sport. So we're kind of fortunate in a way.

I bring a water bottle with me and maybe some Cracker Jacks or a bag of jerky, and I don't feel like I'm missing a damn thing.

I don't know, are people really that hard up? I've been to several Dodger games this year, I buy a bag of peanuts for me, a Dodger Dog and an ice cream for my daughter. I think I'll still be able to pay for college. It's part of the experience.

And of course, popcorn at the movies is a must. It's the only thing that keeps me awake during whatever Katherine Heigl piece of crap I'm scoring points with my wife by sitting through. No points scored if you are sleeping.

I'm not hard up, but like I said, if I don't buy all the concessions crap I can go to twice as many games. And more to the point, I have never had any desire to buy all the crap.

I take a thermos of coffee with me to the movies. Though I don't much care for the kind of fluff movie that would be likely to make me fall asleep.

I don't know, are people really that hard up?

Some are. Unemployment's high and a lot of people are underemployed.

I know not all parks allow this but the Bay Area parks both allow food to be taken inside, and a couple hot dogs you made yourself and some bottles of soda are going to cost you the same as one soda inside the park.

I spend a lot of money on beer and seats, but I'm a firm believer in eating before you go or being cheap for food. The simple fact is, most stadium food just isn't that good. And I've been to a lot of the places that have "good" food. I just order something like peanuts or a single dog/burger from a gourmet place if it exists. There's better food outside almost any stadium.