It’s a busy travel day for me, but this was too good to pass up. From ESPN:
Right field at Dodger Stadium used to feature cheap seats. This year, there will be lots of food and seats that are no longer cheap.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are converting their right-field pavilion into all-you-can-eat bleachers. Takers will have access to as many hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, nachos and soft drinks as they want.
“Instead of paying cash, fans ask for whatever they want, and they get it. There are going to be some self-service parts, buffet-style, as well,” said Dodgers executive vice president and chief operating officer Marty Greenspun.
Around 3,000 seats right-field seats will be sold for $35 in advance and $40 on game day with the all-you-can-eat special.
Left-field tickets, meanwhile, will sell for $10.
The stadium’s cheapest seats, in the top deck, will go for $10 next season instead of $6.
Greenspun said the Dodgers tested the all-you-can-eat concept three times late last season.
“The response was overwhelmingly positive,” he said.
A few other teams have had all-you-can-eat sections.
“The St. Louis Cardinals have done it,” Greenspun said. “It hasn’t been anything of this size.”
In addition, he said, “the other ballparks charge a higher rate than this.”
ESPN.com – MLB – Dodgers opening all-you-can-eat right-field pavilion
This plays right into my epic bit of analysis for one of those extended cable all-about-Vegas shows: “As Las Vegas gets more like the rest of the country, the rest of the country is getting more like Las Vegas.” I’m not saying that casinos have a monopoly on face-stuffing buffets; when I was on the Gulf Coast a few years ago, I’d say one out of every three restaurants I saw outside the casinos had a buffet component (and one out of the other two was a Waffle House). With all those choices, I chose to chow at the Treasure Bay’s buffet–I just loved that carpet so much.
That being said, Vegas buffet connoissuers will sneer at the idea of of what is, in effect, a $25 hot dog and nacho buffet. And I doubt that they’re Kobe beef hot dogs. Even the Boardwalk was a better value than that, and that’s saying something. By the way, I’ve got some great pictures of the Boardwalk’s buffet in its final days, but haven’t unleashed them on the web yet–it’s just too painful. You think at least they’d mix in some salisbury steak. Personally, I don’t want to even get close to an all-you-can-eatery unless I know I’m going to get some decent bread pudding.
More Roll the Bones news: if you’re flying out to Vegas and, for some incredible reason, haven’t yet bought your copy of the Trippie-award winning epic gambling history, you are in luck. I just did a very exclusive signing event at the McCarran International Airport Borders, and there are five (5!) autographed copies just waiting to be bought. While you’re there, you might want to casually ask the proprietors if they will, in the future, stock other titles by this Schwartz character. And if you run into me in a buffet or elsewhere, naturally I’ll personalize it for you.