10 Most Expensive Beers in the NFL: Guzzling Debt
NEW YORK (MainStreet) – At this point, NFL fans are just used to being bled for their money.
League owners are squeezing Minnesota taxpayers for $500 million of the costs of a roughly $1 billion stadium for the Vikings, forcing fans to watch games outdoors in the depths of Minnesota winter for two years while the stadium is built and then pretending they did everyone a favor when it awards the town a Super Bowl in 2018 with a host of stipulations. They're also prying roughly $240 million in tax money out of Atlanta to replace a stadium that's less than 25 years old and pointing to Minnesota to explain to Atlanta residents just how great a deal they're getting. Fans are even showing up for St. Louis Rams, San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders games despite being fully aware that all three of those teams are seriously considering a move to Los Angeles.
Three teams are playing "home" games in London this year, so why should the league think anyone cares about the price of beer. It has already raised the price of an average ticket to $86 this year after just crossing the $80 threshold three years ago. The NFL as a family friendly experience is somewhat of a myth as well, as the the average cost to take a family of four to a game, park, have a beer, hot dog and soda and go home with a program and a cap also jumped 3.7% to nearly $481, according to Team Marketing Report. If you're a beer-swilling single, however, it's not such a bad year. By that measure, $7.42 for 16 ounces of beer doesn't seem all that bad.
It still isn't great. With help from Team Marketing Report's Fan Cost Index, we found the ten most-expensive beer prices in the league by volume and called out the teams who keep wringing fans' wallets into tiny plastic cups until there's nothing left to spill:
10. Tie: Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons
Price of a small draft beer: $7.50 for 16 ounces
Price per ounce: 47 cents
The league's roughly median price for beer is the 45 cents an ounce charged by the Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams, Washington Redskins and Kansas City Chiefs. Everything beyond that -- even the 46 cents an ounce charged by the Chicago Bears -- is the NFL's version of costly.
That's unwelcome news for Lions fans, who are already seething about the fact that referees picked up a penalty flag against the Dallas Cowboys during a crucial drive in last year's playoffs. This year, with a 1-7 record and difficult schedule, beer prices are only compounding the woes of the Lions' faithful.
However, on the other side of this equation, the Atlanta Falcons are 6-1 behind one of the NFL's highest-scoring offenses. Does that help Atlanta forget that it's fronting upwards of $200 million for owner Arthur Blank's nearly $1.4 billion replacement for the 23-year-old Georgia Dome and paying nearly double that initial cost in interest? No, but it makes the city feel a bit better about the more-than $400 million starting price Cobb County paid to lure the Braves into the middle of suburbia.
9. Green Bay Packers
Price of a small draft beer: $7.75 for 16 ounces
Price per ounce: 48 cents
That NFC Championship loss to Seattle seems like an even more distant memory with each win, but even Packers fans excited about having quarterback Aaron Rodgers back in peak form can't like the way the price of their beer is headed.
Though they're community-owned, the Packers have gotten ambitious with their shareholders' cash in recent years and are now working on a complex near Lambeau Field that would include hotel rooms, shopping and a brewery. Perhaps that brewery can get Packers fans a better deal on beer than what they're currently receiving, considering that a team with deep ties to Milwaukee and Wisconsin's brewing history ranks among the highest beer prices in the league. A shame, given Green Bay's seemingly endless supply of game-day bratwurst that complements a beer so well.
8. Pittsburgh Steelers
Price of a small draft beer: $8 for 16 ounces
Price per ounce: 50 cents
Watching the Cincinnati Bengals reel off a 6-0 start in a middling AFC North en route to what's likely to be another first-round playoff exit can't make Steelers fans feel good about this season. Then again, neither can this price on beer
After an 11-5 season last year ended with a loss to the hated rival Baltimore Ravens in last year's Wild Card round, Steelers fans watched defensive stalwart Troy Polamalu retire. The Steelers have struggled to a 4-3 record after losing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to injury. Yet this -- half a buck per ounce of beer -- is an outrage considering that only two other teams in the AFC pay more.
7. Tie: Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys
Price of a small draft beer: $8.50 for 16 ounces
Price per ounce: 50 cents
Both teams were eliminated from the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion last year -- Dallas on a missed call and Baltimore on both a trick play and, arguably, through deflated footballs. Baltimore is 1-6 after suffering a significant injury to star linebacker Terrell Suggs and Dallas is 2-4 after losing quarterback Tony Romo and wide receiver Dez Bryant.
However, neither seems willing to make some small concessions to fans and, instead, are fine charging close to $9 for a pint. It's a long season and neither team is all that far out of contention little more than a quarter of the way in, but it's a seemingly little thing like the price of beer that can make a bad loss at the stadium seem a lot worse.
5. Oakland Raiders
Price of a small draft beer: $10.75 for 20 ounces
Price per ounce: 54 cents
Madness, but it no longer matters.
Raiders' owner Mark Davis was once actually viewed as preferable to his despotic late father, but his and the team's days at O.co Coliseum are nearing their end. He spurned the San Francisco's 49ers offer to share a stadium in Santa Clara. He jetted off to San Antonio and heard that city's argument for becoming the Raiders' new home. Finally, he did the unthinkable by partnering with the owners of his AFC West rival San Diego Chargers on a nearly $2 million stadium proposal in Carson, Calif., that has already been approved by that city's council.
Keep in mind that this is a team that hasn't had a winning season since 2002, has had exactly three winning seasons in Oakland since returning from its last stint in L.A. in 1995 and, oh yeah, has bailed on this town once before when it decided to skip down I-5 the first time in 1982. It finally has something going with quarterback Derek Carr and defensive end Khalil Mack, but Oakland has rightly told the team that it isn't fronting a cent for stadium construction -- largely because it doesn't have the money to spend.
That 3-3 record this year and a porous defense haven't inspired confidence, but the costliest starting price for a beer anywhere in the league shouldn't make Oakland fans feel too bad. In fairness, when you're rooting for a team with one foot out the door, it's hard to feel much worse.
4. New Orleans Saints
Price of a small draft beer: $9 for 16 ounces
Price per ounce: 56 cents
Star quarterback Drew Brees suffered a shoulder injury earlier in the season and the team's record remains a mediocre 3-4. New Orleans would not be in the playoffs if the season ended today.
The 2009 Super Bowl win is becoming a more distant memory by the day, especially with this team making the playoffs just once in the last three years following the team's bounty scandal (the NFL accused team members of paying bounties for injurying opposing players). Ownership has been in disarray, the team itself has looked rudderless and coach Sean Payton just seems like a man adrift.
There are signs the Saints are rebounding but with beer prices this high, you're better off grabbing some drinks with the tourists on Bourbon Street and watching the game there.
3. Arizona Cardinals
Price of a small draft beer: $7.25 for 12 ounces
Price per ounce: 60 cents
This is where we start to get into some really overpriced beer.
We realize a 5-2 record, a healthy quarterback in Carson Palmer and a less-than-inspiring NFC West should have Cardinals fans fired up, but that beer price is absolutely putrid. Yes, it's more affordable than the starting price of any beer on this list so far, but the per-ounce value for 12 ounces is horrendous. Spilling an ounce and a half of that beer would set you back nearly a dollar. However, in a state that's already been burned by lackluster returns on two Super Bowl hosting stints, some folks would rather go thirsty in the desert than pay that amount for a beer.
2. San Francisco
Price of a small draft beer: $10 for 16 ounces
Price per ounce: 63 cents
After a series of particularly violent fan altercations that have occurred since Levi's Stadium opened last year, this is probably the one place in the NFL where people think a $10 beer may not be expensive enough.
We realize that Silicon Valley can absorb that high cost, but the fans in Santa Clara haven't shown themselves particularly capable of absorbing that much beer without incident. With the 49ers sitting in the basement of the NFC West at 2-5, it isn't as if the faithful have a whole lot to help them think happier thoughts. The Santa Clara city council is already considering putting an end to beer sales after halftime? Is another price hike far behind?
1. Philadelphia Eagles
Price of a small draft beer: $8.50 for 12 ounces
Price per ounce: 71 cents
[Deep breath]. Boooooooooooooooooo!
Why do you dare Philadelphia fans to do this? Why, concessionaires who should know better, would you provoke the most outwardly hostile fans in the country by absolutely robbing them for a beer?
These aren't some tourists from Jersey that you're gouging for a “real” Philly cheesesteak while you haughtily enjoy your roast pork and broccoli rabe. This isn't some uppity preppy from Wilmington who you send out for a Schmitter after the game while you pick up some Tastykakes at the nearest Wawa. These are fans who are watching coach Chip Kelly's experiment take an ugly turn that completely misuses newly acquired running back DeMarco Murray, that relies far to heavily on the health of the bundle of cadaver parts that calls itself Sam Bradford and that has beaten just one NFC East opponent this year. These folks are going to be fairly cranky, and just shuffling them off to Center City or Old City for cheaper beers isn't going to help anyone -- except maybe the Lincoln Financial Field maintenance crews.
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.