After 27 years, the Phillies are replacing the very popular dollar dog night promotion with two buy-one-get-one hot dog nights in April, per a team press release.
On April 2 and April 16, fans will be able to purchase two hot dogs for five dollars, the price of one hot dog. The team says it is making this change based on the “organization’s ongoing commitment to provide a positive experience for all fans in attendance.”
“I don’t think anyone who was here for those three games will tell you that it was as enjoyable as it normally is,” Phillies senior vice president of ticket operations John Weber told Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “ … You want to engage your younger fan group, especially on those April and May dates where families may not be coming out as much. We hope this does it, while also people won’t have extra hot dogs laying around or people won’t just buy them and start throwing them.”
Last year’s dollar dog nights were an adventure. Many fans spent a good portion of those games waiting in long lines to purchase hot dogs, missing innings worth of game action in the process.
As Breen noted in his article, the dollar dog night promotion began in 1997 as a way to boost attendance at Veterans Stadium. The team still held dollar dog night promotions without any major issues during the run of 257 consecutive sellouts from 2009 to 2012.
Things were different last year. The long lines for hot dogs clogged the concourses and made you wonder whether the wait for a heavily discounted hot dog was worth it. Fans throwing hot dogs around wasn’t a great look and higher prices could deter that behavior, but it’s also not a great look to take away something thousands of other fans enjoy due to a few bad apples.
The team is centering the messaging regarding the change on fan behavior, but there are likely other factors in play. The long lines and concession partner Aramark’s inability to keep up with demand is likely one of them.
A dollar today is also worth roughly half of its value from 27 years ago. For the Phillies, the margins are probably not worth the mess.
The first BOGO dog night will be April 2 against the Cincinnati Reds and April 16 against the Colorado Rockies. It will be interesting to see how much traction this promotion gets in its first year.
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Lauree Padgett
February 29, 2024 at 1:01 pm
I was at CBP on non-Dollar Dog Nights and found the countdown clock for batters/pitchers has made it hard no matter what to go to the concession stand at any point in the game and not miss a few innings. I don’t think side effects like that were taken into consideration. At home when I’m watching a game, I can hit pause and get food, go to the bathroom, etc., and not miss any action. But at the game, the time “saved” is really lost whenever a fan leaves their seat. For the amount of money the average person pays for a ticket, they shouldn’t have to miss 2 innings to get food or use the restroom in order “speed up” the game for those who think the game has become too time-consuming.