Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Do you have a budget for FOOTBALL GAMES?

This article just came in the right time - How much is too much when it comes to football? 

Have you listed how much money you have spent on a professional game? On this post, I am just talking about spending money for ONE game in ONE day. Not to mention the game is broadcast on TV - We do not have cable so at least we are not paying for that, but I can just imagine the people around us have cable bills (NFL Redzone anyone?), bought season tickets and spending additional $$$ being at the game.



Our total spent $535 =(

Tickets $100 x2
The average price for an NFL tickets are over $100 for 2014. I am assuming we bought the tickets at the same price /
Cheaper Option: One of our friends got FIELD TICKETS for half the price by waiting at the last minute to get tickets. They got their tickets the night before and got better seats than us. This was the website they used
Parking $25 
Technically we could've avoided this, but we needed his car (truck) to transport the grill
Cheaper Option: Usually you can take a trolley to the stadium  
Tailgate Food / Drinks $80
I think between Jay and I (minus what our friends contributed) we have spent about $150 on food and drinks for the tailgate.
  • Beer (craft) $9 - Three different 6 packs for a total of $30
  • Water $5 - Pack of bottled water
  • Snacks $35 - Chips, salsa, guacamole, fruit platter, cheese and salami platter 
  • Misc items $10 - we bought paper towel, sanitizer wipes, ice 
Cheaper Option: It was actually cheaper to just eat inside, but the tailgate made it really fun. We figured this was our dinner date - which we havent done in a while.
Game Food / Drinks $30 
We bought beer for $9/each (12oz)  wth! We were complaining buying craft beers for $9 for a six pack yet we still bought a glass of beer for $9 each. Total spent $30 (with tip and bought one for a friend) 
Cheaper Option : Do not buy food inside the stadium. They are usually marked up for almost 800%. Check to see if there are any rules/regulations for bringing food and drinks and bring your own. We were able to bring 2 unopened water bottles each inside. 
Gas, Jerseys and other misc.  $100-200
I did not expect that an average jersey costs $100. From my previous post, Jay got me a jersey for that price and he also got his own too. So lets just assume an average person buys a jersey for himself and his significant other 
 Cheaper Option: Search a discount store like TJ Maxx. I am not sure if this applies anywhere else, but we found Jay's jersey for half the price (Its similar to mine - we cant figure out the difference, but he said mine was newer)

What would I have changed? NOTHING. I had so much fun. We do not do this often and it was nice doing something different on the weekend. I wouldve probably budgeted everything more - like the tickets that one of our friends got, but thats for next time. The boys are talking about going to another game!




How much have you spent going to a football game or any professional game? Do you have any other tips when going to games? 




2 comments:

  1. I don't have any tips but it's too funny that you posted this as only last weekend M and I were discussing how much his NFL obsession adds to our budget....especially as we live in the UK!

    We pay for a sports digital channel - £20/$32 a month although that's not just for the NFL. There's his Gamepass subscription - $208/£130 annually and then if we're going to NY we buy tickets to a game. This year the tickets were $172/£107 + food when we're there. If we lived in the US no doubt we would be spending a lot more.
    We don't begrudge paying any of it because he/we get a lot of pleasure from it. (We also realise how very lucky we are to be able to afford it!)

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    1. I know its hard when you tally it - but it is worth it in the end since you do need some enjoyment (sanity) in your life =) Which teams do you guys root for?

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