Lower costs at concessions; impose drink limit at arts center

Iread the editorial titled "Party's Over at Arts Center" on the opinion page of your Aug. 23 issue. While I agree that teen drinking is a major problem, I wondered why one of the real reasons leading to overindulgence during tailgating is never addressed.

In my opinion a part of the reason is the ridiculous prices charged for concession items at the PNC Bank Arts Center and nearly all other venues for concerts as well as sporting and other events.

Why do these concession vendors have to charge anywhere from $5 and up for a beer, not to mention the prices for other food items? It is the reason that tailgating began to begin with. You could barbecue a whole pack of hot dogs in the parking lot for the price of one hot dog inside the venue. You could provide enough nachos and salsa for three carloads of people for the price that they get for one order inside. Why would venue patrons fork over $7 for a flat, watered-down beer, when they could provide their own sixpack for the same $7?

The venues are blatant enough in their attempt to grab as many dollars as possible from the eventgoer as to ban bottled water and other food items from being brought into the arena/stadium.

I believe that if the prices of concessions were not so high (maybe $3 for a beer) that patrons would purchase them inside. Add that to the possibility of an imposed drink limit of two, and maybe you've got something that could work.

Maybe the venues need to share in a responsible plan with the patrons to keep the overindulgence at a minimum.

Anthony Milito

Monroe