Dehydrating Your Fans for Profits

Extortion is illegal.  So is price gauging.  Yet few in law enforcement (or public office) seem to care that sports teams that play in hot stadiums don't have water fountains and charge $5.00 for a bottle of water.

But ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook does:

Reader Jim Medwid of Alden, New York, attended a recent Bills preseason game and reports: “The concourses are now wider, but all drinking fountains have been removed from the stadium, which prohibits bringing in any kind of bottle, even clear-sided water bottles.” So taxpayers paid $90 million for renovations that force Bills ticket holders to buy $5 water bottles from the concession stands, and guess who keeps the profit.

As Neil deMause points out, "No drinking fountains and a ban on water bottles sounds like not just a terrible idea, but a recipe for lawsuits the first time someone passes out from dehydration on a hot day."

As the University of Central Florida could tell you, it's not a popular play.  However, the NFL isn't really about popular...it's about profitable!

Which, of course, is why those same Bills are "being sold for 10 figures (while also claiming) it requires a new crib after it took state money for the old one."