CubsFaninMN
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- Joined:
- Jan 8, 2018
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Wow. I knew it had gone up, but...
I moved to Minneapolis 23 years ago, and haven't been to a game at Wrigley since. I've seen the Cubs live once in that period, 2015, when they played the Twins up here. Arrieta started and threw complete-game shutout, Fowler hit a home run, Schwarbs (in his first stint with the major league team) hit a double, IIRC. I think my rather good single seat, in the lower deck about 20 feet down the third base line and about 10 rows back from the field, ran about $50, IIRC. A beer and a dog ran about $12. Sounds like Mpls is cheaper than Wrigley these days.
But... you have to remember, back when I was in my 20's, I worked third shift for a couple of years. This was around '79-81, I got up at about 11:00 pm, cleaned up and went to work, got off work around 8 am, and tried to get to bed by around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I lived in Chicago proper, so I could easily decide at one in the afternoon that I wanted to go catch a Cubs game, drive down and park, pay $5 or $6 to join the other five to six thousand fans gathered on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon, and sit pretty much anywhere in the park I liked. Or I could pay $3 or $4 to sit in the bleachers.
A beer an inning for five or six innings and three or four Lil' Smokies later, I'd have invested maybe $25 or $30, at most. Two Smokies and three beers might only run $15 back then; this was when you could get a beer for 50 cents or a pitcher for $3 at some bars.
I'd be in for an affordable afternoon at the ball park, having paid as much as I felt like paying for my day's entertainment, except perhaps for a Big Gulp grabbed at the 7-11 across the street, at the corner of Addison and Sheffield, during my egress from the madding crowd.
So, for one young guy who can put down six beers and five or six dogs, we're talking a 10-fold-plus increase in cost?
And the dogs ain't even Smokies...
