The Falcons’ new concession prices are the least they do

Compared to the going rate for food at other venues around the league, it’s quite the bargain. The cost for most of those items is roughly on par with what they could be at a convenience store as opposed to a live event. Sure, the Falcons could follow the league standard of fleecing fans more for food and drink once they’ve already gotten them in the gates, so it’s all well and good that they decided to cut fans a bit of a break in that regard. There’s no reason they had to make this change. They could have gone right ahead and kept charging what they had or possibly even more. So that’s kind of nice.

Still, if this is the sort of meager gesture from professional sports teams that earns massive plaudits, what hope do Americans have when it comes to denying these franchises heaps of public funds? According to reports, $200 million in public funds went toward construction of the stadium, with an additional hundreds of millions more in expected operating costs, putting the figure at $600 million and rising as the stadium sets to open.

It’s just sort of an accepted fact of life that pro sports franchises reap public money for these facilities that are often not needed. Of course, that’s not the only way the team is passing on costs to fans. No Atlanta sports franchise had used personal seat licenses until this Falcons stadium was announced. Now the Falcons are charging some fans $45,000 per seat for personal seat licenses (PSLs). Initially, in the upper reaches of the 70,000-seat stadium, the Falcons were charging $1,250-$1,500 for PSLs but had to lower those figures to $500-$750 when they found people weren’t coming in droves to fork out more than a thousand dollars just for the right to spend more money on tickets.

This isn’t like the movie theater industry where most of the revenue is earned through concessions. NFL teams make the majority of their money through sharing the pot from massive TV contracts. If the stadium is filled to capacity, concessions are small potatoes, so to speak. League-wide revenue was up a reported 10 percent in 2016, according to figures gleaned by financial disclosures by the Green Bay Packers.

It’s fine to note progress, even if it only pertains to a price point on junk food that is still profitable. But it’s best to frame these changes as the least these teams could do, especially when pressure to improve the live experience is high given how many fans have realized that broadcast is best way to watch the NFL. Even then, the NFL and other pro sports are doing their damage. Exorbitant rights fees are a big reason why networks like ESPN represent such a big part of the average cable bill, even if you aren’t a sports fan.

So cheers to the Falcons on slashing hot dog prices. Awful big of you after you already got the huge windfall you wanted.