When it comes to college baseball, there are few places like the University of Florida. The Gators are a perennial national contender, ranked eighth in average attendance in 2024 and were voted the best Division I program this decade by D1 Baseball in January.
And yet, in the most literal sense, budget-minded fans can find themselves leaving Condron Family Ballpark hungry for more.
Using data from 10 other Division I baseball programs, including nine fellow SEC teams that all rank in the top 25 nationally in attendance, it’s clear to see fans’ complaints aren’t unquantified.
Florida, which hosts Vanderbilt University for a three-game series this weekend, consistently ranks among the priciest ballpark menus in multiple statistical categories.
Samuel Reeder, a 22-year-old UF finance student, said he never eats at Gator baseball games, in part due to staggering concession prices that make for one of the most expensive menus among Southeastern Conference peers and those with similar attendance nationally.
“Just at the last game I was at, I saw somebody with a box of Sour Patch Kids and thought, ‘That would be nice,’” he said. “I went to the concessions, saw the price and was like, ‘I’m good.’”
Among popular ballpark fanfare items (popcorn, pretzels, peanuts, hot dogs and candy), Florida has the third-most expensive average price ($6.20) among the schools surveyed. However, the two schools in front of UF, Texas A&M ($8.79 average) and Alabama ($7.24 average), sell their popcorn in refillable buckets.
When it comes to drinks, Florida sells the most expensive small-size domestic beer per ounce at $0.75. For sodas, it’s the fifth-most expensive offering.
And for chicken tenders, a menu item that serves as the “premium” meal at many ballparks, expect to pay $19 this season at Condron Ballpark. No other school charges more than $15.50. At Walt Disney World’s “Chicken Guy!” restaurant located in Disney Springs, five tenders and a side of fries cost $12.49.
The Consumer Price Index, which represents the overall cost of all consumer items including food, has increased 16.07% since 2021 when the Gators moved to Condron Family Ballpark from Alfred A. McKethan stadium.
Still, inflation doesn’t account for Florida’s increased prices relative to its competitors.
The University Athletic Association declined to comment about its concession prices.
Florida hasn’t had much trouble retaining fans. The program has increased average attendance from around 2,000 fans per game in 17 of the 20 seasons played at McKethan to more than 6,000 since 2021.
However, Gary Carter, former president of the Gator Dugout Club, thinks the steep prices could prevent the team from growing a bigger and younger audience.
“A dad wants to bring his couple kids and his wife here, they’re going to drop $150 to $200 a game,” he said. “And that’s kind of ridiculous, in my opinion.”
And Carter said it’s not just the price of the food that could turn fans away from the registers — it’s the quality.
“I can’t see dropping $50, $60, $70 on food when, after the game, we can go somewhere else and pay much less for much better quality,” he said.
Options for concessions at Florida games are limited to standard items like chicken tenders and fries, pizza and hotdogs, as well basic ballpark snacks like popcorn and pretzels. Other programs like Texas A&M, Tennessee and Texas offer third-party brands like Chick-fil-A, Moe’s Southwest Grill and Dippin’ Dots alongside regular fanfare.
Florida does host a rotating lineup of food trucks at games as an alternative to the concession stand.
Reeder did add that the prices of concessions are not a dealbreaker. It may stop him from purchasing concessions, but it won’t deter his attendance at games.
“I love the stadium. As a student I get the tickets for free, and I don’t have to pay for parking,” he said. “If high concession prices is the worst thing, it’s not the end of the world.”
To its credit, Florida offers the third-least expensive ticket prices for the general admission section at conference and premium games, tied with Kentucky at $12. Only Texas ($9) and Florida State ($7) offer cheaper get-in prices. Florida students, meanwhile, get in free if they sit on the stadium’s berm area. The average ticket price of surveyed programs is $18.27, making the ticket into Condron Ballpark one of the best deals at the stadium.
A group of professional teams including the Atlanta Falcons, Utah Jazz and Utah Hockey Club have been trailblazers to solve the issue of overpriced concessions. These teams have developed menus that offer concession options at lower prices. The Falcons offer these prices for fans seated in six sections of the arena, while Utah’s prices are available arena-wide.
Since this trend has popped up over the past few years, many SEC baseball programs have taken a swing at greater affordability, too. Louisiana State offers a 50% discount at Tuesday home games. Fanfare items at Texas’ midweek games are half off until first pitch. At South Carolina, NIL collective members are granted a 10% discount on every order. Missouri also offers a “fan-friendly pricing” menu including cheeseburgers for $5 and hot dogs for $3.
The Falcons’ “Fan Fare” menu offers hot dogs, nachos, soda, candy and beer options all under $5 each. Heather Sautter, VP of corporate and marketing communications for AMB Sports and Entertainment, the umbrella company that owns the Falcons, said the menu took shape because concession prices were one of the things fans gave negative feedback about the most.
“We wanted to change that,” Sautter said. “We worked with Levy, our food partner, to create a model never done before in the industry.”
Sautter said the Falcons took inspiration from The Masters golf tournament and its celebrated concession prices, like the famous $1.50 pimento cheese sandwich, when designing the menu.
“It may cost a premium to attend The Masters, but guests won’t have to shell out a lot of money to eat well,” she said. “That was the inspiration.”
Sautter added that prices didn’t have to be raised elsewhere to compensate for the menu. In fact, the team found that the volume of concession sales increased in these sections. She said the biggest struggle teams could have with operating a similar menu is being prepared for the volume of sales.
“One of our goals was to inspire others to follow this model if they could,” Sautter said. “Many tried, but when you sell at the price point we do, you have to be prepared for the volume of food you have to produce.”
The blueprint is clearly in place for Florida to offer its fans more competitive concession pricing relative to its SEC counterparts, but it’s unclear if the UAA plans to reconcile Gators baseball fans’ concession woes.