NFL Concessions Prices Are Out Of Control

We're well into football season, and there's nothing its fans love more than the classic combo of hot dogs and beer. At the grocery store, these items are always pretty affordable—a mass-market six-pack and an 8-pack of franks won't put you out much. But at a sports stadium, it's a whole different ballgame (pun intended), since you're paying a premium for the overall live football experience, concessions and all. So just how expensive is food at an NFL game these days?

Some recently released data from New Jersey gambling site NJ.bet lists off the least expensive and most expensive concession staples at every NFL arena in the United States. The prices can vary a wild amount depending on where you are. Let's start with the cheapest stadium hot dogs in the country:

• Atlanta Falcons, $2.00
• Baltimore Ravens, $3.00
• Carolina Panthers, $3.00
• Arizona Cardinals, $4.50
• New England Patriots, $4.50

If you're at a football game in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, congrats, you won't spend an arm and a leg. That's thanks to the long-running practice of the Atlanta Falcons' "fan-friendly" pricing strategy, where hot dogs are just $2 and beer is just $5. That's quite a crowd-pleasing deal.

Elsewhere, however, the concessions can get pretty damn pricey. Here are the top five most expensive hot dogs at NFL stadiums:

• L.A. Rams, $8.00
• Las Vegas Raiders, $8.00
• L.A. Chargers, $8.00
• Chicago Bears, $7.25
• Buffalo Bills, $7.00

In Los Angeles and Las Vegas, you'll pay four times as much for a basic hot dog as you would in Atlanta. And while the Chicago hot dog is slightly less gouging, I'm disappointed to see that our hometown dog is still up near the top at a whopping $7.25. And at Highmark Stadium where the Buffalo Bills play, you'll still be paying a pretty fat sum of $7 per dog. A plain hot dog to which you add your own condiments from pump-handled tubs.

Beer prices can vary wildly by location as well—and even within the stadium, depending on which brewery you opt for. Interestingly, even if your stadium sells an exorbitantly expensive hot dog, that doesn't necessarily mean the beer prices correlate. Here are the cheapest beer prices among all the NFL football stadiums:

• Atlanta Falcons, $5.00
• New York Jets, $5.00
• Detroit Lions, $5.00
• Cincinnati Bengals, $5.27
• Houston Texans, $6.00

The cheapest price for beer goes to the Atlanta Falcons again (due to that "fan-friendly pricing"). I bet Falcons fans leave the stadium pretty buzzed—though maybe the cheap hot dogs help them soak up the beer. The Jets and Lions also tie at $5, while the Bengals and Texans aren't too much more expensive than that. The most expensive beer prices are pretty painful to look at, though:

• Washington Commanders, $14.00
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers, $11.00
• Jacksonville Jaguars, $11.50
• New Orleans Saints, $11.50
• San Francisco 49ers, $11.50

I'm surprised by these results. First of all, I didn't know it was possible for a beer to cost $14, even at a football game. Maybe some sort of craft brew, but NJ.bet notes these prices are for "regular beer," which we can assume is mass-market brew. Notice that just because the pricing for hot dogs is pretty steep in some of these arenas, that doesn't directly correlate to the prices of beer, as none of the expensive beer stadiums are the same ones that sell pricey hot dogs.

With prices like this, it's no wonder the study says three out of 10 people have reported sneaking food and drinks into stadiums for a game. Interestingly, only 14% of those surveyed said the item they snuck in was booze; the majority of people sneaking stuff into a stadium brought food in, at 52%, while 34% admitted to bringing in both food and alcohol. I mean, $14 for a beer would make me want to smuggle something in too.

On average, fans spend $58 on concessions per game, which is particularly painful when added to the cost of the ticket itself, and maybe parking. But hey, there's always tailgating, something we know a little bit about. I do have to say, though, that there really is something magical about a stadium beer and a hot dog. Some of them you might just want to savor a little slower before you get up and grab the next.