Photo by Dave Cottenie, Stadium Journey
Going to a baseball game with friends or family is one of America’s classic pastimes. You may be able to afford tickets to go to a ball game or two, but you want to try and save some money by bringing your own food. You should know that not all baseball stadiums allow you to bring outside food into the ballpark. In some cases, this may be a new or temporary change because of COVID-19 restrictions. In these cases, you will have to purchase food and drink from concession stands in the ballpark.
However, some stadiums do still allow food and drink to be brought into the stadium, but there may be some restrictions that vary between each ballpark. If you want to know where you can bring your own snacks to a ball game, this list is for you.
The Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada has a pretty liberal food policy. You are allowed to bring in food or drinks with the following restrictions:
Must be wrapped, bagged or inside a container to avoid messes from spills
Containers must comply with their bag policy in terms of size and material
Bottles and cans of drinks must be plastic, non-alcoholic, and hold no more than 600 mL of liquid
Your cans or bottles must be unopened when you arrive, but they will be opened at the security gate
No cannabis products are allowed
The exception to the final rule is if you have hemp products that are THC-free, so you can bring small plastic bags of premium CBD gummies.
The Yankee Stadium food policy does not provide as much information as the Rogers Centre, but it does say that they allow food to be brought into the stadium for individual consumption, meaning you cannot bring your own food to sell. You can bring in fruit like apples or oranges as long as they have already been sliced or sectioned, and you can bring in bottles of water as long as they are plastic and hold no more than one liter.
The Dodger Stadium food policy is similar to the Yankee Stadium policy. You can bring in food from outside, but it does not allow for any bottles, cans, coolers, glass containers, or thermoses. Non-alcoholic bottles of beverages can be allowed if it has one liter or less. The exception to this is if you have a suite, in which case you can’t bring any of your own food or drink.
The Busch Stadium food policy is a bit more comprehensive. It allows most kinds of food to be brought into the stadium as long as it follows the bag policy for size and material. You can’t bring in alcohol, or anything in hard cans, bottles, containers or coolers. Drinks have to be in plastic, factory-sealed bottles that are two liters or less. Similar to Dodgers Stadium, you cannot bring any food or drink from outside into their suites.
The Great American Ballpark food policy allows for bags and coolers to be brought into the stadium with food and drink that meets certain restrictions:
Drinks must be factory-sealed, unopened and non-alcoholic
Coolers must be soft-sided
The Truist Park food policy allows for outside food that fits inside clear plastic bags no bigger than one gallon. Drinks must be non-alcoholic, inside sealed plastic bottles, are also allowed. You are only able to bring in one bag of food and one bottle of a drink per ticket holder. They do allow some extra considerations for infants and people with dietary restrictions. All food and drink will be inspected by security on entrance.
The Marlins Park food policy allows for specific permitted items related to food and drink:
Individual serving sizes food items that are in a clear plastic bag, including sandwiches, snacks, or sliced fruit
One clear plastic bottle per person of unflavoured water that is factory sealed, unopened, and holds no more than 20 ounces
One clear, soft bottle that is empty so you can fill with water in the park
The Tropicana Field food policy allows food to be brought into the stadium for individual consumption. They must be individual servings that are wrapped, bagged or in soft containers no bigger than 16″ x 16″ x 8″. You can bring in sealed bottles of regular water, as well as juice boxes for children. You cannot bring in any soda, coffee, or any other kind of drink, even if they’re in sealed plastic bottles.
Some of the rules and restrictions on outside food and drink are similar, but there are variations between them.
A lot of stadium policies give guidelines to the size of food or drink you can bring, as well as restrictions on the kinds of drink. The general idea is you can’t bring anything that is too large, or made from a hard material that can be easily thrown or used as a weapon. You can always contact the stadium security ahead of time to ask specific questions on if they allow certain types of food.