Can You Enjoy a (Red Sox!) MLB Game For Under $50?

Recently while casually navigating the volatile minefield that is X, I came across a post from Marc Viquez, also known as the Ballpark Hunter, host of the Stadium Reviews podcast.

Marc posed a philosophical question that happens to be in my wheelhouse: Can you enjoy an MLB game for under $50?

My response: Challenge accepted!

“Yeah, let’s do this! Wait, whoa, what?”

I could, of course, have made this easy and gone to a cheaper ballpark. But that’s no fun. I decided to go for a game at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, and currently the second most expensive ballpark in baseball, after Dodger Stadium.

For this challenge, I included the essentials to “enjoy” a ballgame – those were the parameters in the posed question, after all. A ticket, transportation to the game (which could include parking or public transit), and food and drink at the ballpark.

Let’s go.

Start here.

A Red Sox Game For Under $50, Part 1 – The Game Ticket

First, obviously you need a ticket. There are multiple ways to save money on Red Sox tickets, and I detail them here.

For this challenge, I employed three of my better tips:

1) Subscribe to the Red Sox ticket alert newsletter: it’s my favorite tip. This saved me $10 on the ticket, since the Red Sox sent me a $10 discount offer on my birthday in April.

2) Choose a low demand game: A weeknight game in May is a good time to take advantage of lower ticket prices, with the weather still chilly in Boston and school still in session. I picked the Wednesday May 27 game against Atlanta.

3) Wait till the last minute: I probably should amend this to “keep checking closer to game day”, which is what I did. And a Grandstand ticket became available two days before the game in my price range.

Sure, it’s a cheap seat. But there’s a problem here.

Now, I should mention here that a Grandstand ticket at Fenway Park is, as you may know, an obstructed view risk. And I had to check that before making the purchase; actually enjoying a game, as required by the challenge, is harder when there’s a big pole in front of you.

I detail some basic tips here about how to avoid the dreaded obstructed view; but I will say this…if you are at home and have the luxury of checking, use this Fenway Park guide from Tim Shea. I have the 2010 edition, but that works just fine. Shea does a superb job of showing which seats in every section have an obstructed view of the pitcher’s mound or home plate.

Get it on eBay here; any edition will work. Trust me, for things like this, this book is well worth the investment.

The umpire can’t hear me yelling anyway.

As it turns out, my seat had a pole blocking the view of first base. But if need be, I could lean over to see a play at first. Certainly not enough to disrupt my enjoyment of the game, the pole wasn’t very close to me so it didn’t block much.

Ticket price: $26 (with my birthday discount). A steal at Fenway, I should add.

Now for getting to the ballpark.

Obviously this garage wasn’t going to work.

A Red Sox Game For Under $50, Part 2 – Transportation/Parking

Fenway is one of those ballparks that most folks use public transit to get to, like Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Rogers Centre and some others. There are several reasons for this, but one of the biggest is the unholy price of parking at Fenway.

Now, I’ve written a complete guide for parking at Fenway. If you’re looking to go cheap or even free, you certainly can. But if you want to be close to the ballpark, public transit is a whole lot easier and cheaper. And much more convenient, with the MBTA Green Line Kenmore station a short walk from Fenway.

Believe it or not, you’re better off parking in Newton.

I drove to the Riverside MBTA station, the western terminus of the “D” Green Line. There is a sizable parking lot there that charged me $6 for the evening. The lot had plenty of spaces available at my arrival. It’s a bit goofy using their app to pay the bill, but $6 is a lot less than $65.

From the station, it’s a single ride to Kenmore with no transfers, for $2.40 one way. Kenmore Station, were it a parking lot, would cost at least $50 for its proximity to Fenway.

With the parking at the station and the round trip train ride, transportation to the ballpark totaled $10.80.

It never said in the rules that I couldn’t bicycle to Kenmore Station.

This is, of course, just one way to get to Fenway. I cover a variety of transit methods to get to the ballpark in this highly helpful post. It even covers using the Bluebikes Boston bikeshare program. That’s certainly a way to save a few bucks if you’re an energetic type.

New total with ticket and transportation: $36.80.

Now I need to get something to eat. Can’t be sitting at a ballgame hungry.

Check out the second item from the left. It’s iconic.

A Red Sox Game For Under $50, Part 3: Food and Drink At The Game

As we all know, ballpark food prices make eating at the game something of a luxury. But maybe not everyone knows that the Red Sox have lifted their ban on outside food at the ballpark.

According to the Red Sox bag policy, you can bring in a 12*12*6 bag with no additional compartments. There’s no restrictions on food, but no alcohol and only one 16 oz. bottle of water.

I fretted far more than I needed to over this. If you look at bottled water these days, it usually comes in 500 ml bottles – which is 16.9 ounces. I spent way too much time worrying about how strict the Red Sox would be, but I decided to do the 16.9 oz bottle and go for it, hoping my negotiating skills wouldn’t be needed.

As it turns out, the Sox aren’t tough at all about that. I walked right in; they barely looked at the bag contents.

By this point, you should have peanuts already. but you can get them here.

I’m a big peanuts guy at a ballgame. There’s something special to me about watching a game while cracking open peanuts…I love the aspect of working for your ballgame food.

This is the closest I came to cheating in this venture: I went to my local Dollar Tree here in Turnersville, and picked up a sizable bag of peanuts, a bag of spicy salsa chips (I’m a big fan), and the aforementioned bottle of water.

Each item was $1.25, bringing my total of ballpark food items so far to $3.75.

No rule that says you have to buy official Red Sox snacks inside the ballpark.

There are multiple stores near Fenway where you can load up your goody bag before going in. There’s a Target and a Star Market, not to mention multiple takeout joints like Tasty Burger, Chipotle, Sweetgreen and others.

You get it. You might spend a few bucks more, but you can eat well at a Red Sox game much cheaper with this loophole.

When you’re on a budget, there’s no shame in keeping it real.

If you’re at a Red Sox game, sure there’s Lobstah Poutine, Green Monster Loaded Fries, Tasty Burgers and Luke’s Lobster rolls. We can save that for another time when we have a larger budget; I’ve detailed the extensive food selection at Fenway in this post.

But as any Red Sox fan can tell you, there’s nothing wrong with the classic food staple at their classic ballpark. And with what I had spent so far, I could still afford that Fenway Frank. It’s listed as $6.50, although it totals $7 with the tax.

So then – here we are with the ballpark menu for my excursion: a Fenway Frank, a bag of spicy salsa chips, a bag of peanuts, and a bottle of water, for a total of $10.75.

Just find these folks, they’re very nice.

And one more thing; you can still sign up for the Red Sox Designated Driver program, and get a free small soda in exchange for promising not to drink alcohol. Staying under $50 is tough enough without buying a beer at the game, so I did just that.

You sign up on the MLB Ballpark app now, and the nice folks at the Red Sox Fan Information booths will be happy to show you how to do it.

So that adds a small Sprite with my snacks, Fenway Frank and water. And I can pour the water into my free cup of ice.

So, can you do it for less than $50?

A Red Sox Game For Under $50, Part 4: Mission Status

So here are the lovely totals:

• Non Obstructed View Ticket at Fenway: $26
• Parking at Riverside Train Station: $6
• Round trip ride on the MBTA train: $4.80
• Snacks and water: $3.75
• Designated Driver soda: Free
• Fenway Frank: $7

That brings my total to (drumroll): $47.55! Mission accomplished!

Not only that, I have $2.45 to spare! What can I do? It’s enough to take one more ride on the MBTA, buy another bag of peanuts at Dollar Tree, or just donate some change in my next trip to the 7-Eleven. Or maybe I’ll just keep it for my next game and make the challenge $52.45.

At any rate, mission success. I enjoyed a game at Fenway Park, one of the most expensive ballparks in baseball, for less than a Grant.

Agreed.

A Red Sox Game For Under $50, Part 5: Epilogue

I’ll just add this for the record: I really did have a wonderful time, and not just because I enjoyed meeting the challenge from an established ballpark aficionado like Marc.

It was a big Red Sox win, with the Sox exploding in the fourth for six runs in an 8-0 victory. Red Sox fans are a loud lot, especially in the Grandstand, and that was fun. I had plenty of peanuts to munch on, and I never tire of Fenway Franks. Even scored a seat on the train ride back.

Trust this guy. He knows his stuff.

And as any baseball fan knows, there’s nothing like a game at Fenway. It was, truly, a blast.

So there you go folks, stick with Ballpark E-Guides! Getting value for your ballpark dollar is what this website is all about, my friends. Be sure you’re checking out my helpful tips, whether you’re visiting a ballpark for the first time or the fiftieth.

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Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you at the Yard!