I don't understand why rich people put up with this. Sure you can afford it but $66 12 pack of Bud Light is a rip-off no matter how much your salary is. And why bother with a $90 pizza when you can get your assistant to fetch you a $10 one from the snack stand?

"No, really, I've spent almost a million dollars leasing a suite here!"
"Sorry sir, if you don't have a ticket, you don't get to enjoy it."

...Am I the only one who's a little twitchy about how ridiculous this is?

Just be glad you did not ask for an aspirin or a cotton ball!

Then again... these prices look exactly like medical billing prices.

Those prices might just beat out the Yankees old pricing.

The vast majority of people on this planet are blithering idiots. Even the rich ones. Therefore, crap like this works.

Hey, they've got to pay for the stadium somehow. Why not take it out on the fans!

@outlulz: I've had the same thought, there has to be a price point where even Bill Gates would say something is priced ridiculously.

"Oh, you didn't buy any tickets with this $800K Suite? Then, please, kindly turn your backs to the window looking down onto the field."

I guess everything is bigger AND more expensive in Texas.

Wait, you get a suite but no ticket to the game?

Is it like ... you're allowed in your suite at all times except during games? Because I'm pretty sure suites have views of, you know, the field.

Texas has among the highest rates of citizens lacking health insurance (predictably, the Deep South states are neck-and-neck).
It's nice to know that they have $1,300,000,000 to piss away on a freaken football stadium - with vast tracts roping off the taxpayers funding this White Elephant - however.
It's good to know they have their spending priorities straight. Phew!

I'm confused about what it does include. No food is pretty standard (FedEx Field does this and their party platters are ridiculous. $70 for a bottle of Absolut? I'll go downstairs, thanks) but no tickets? Does that mean that someone else can buy tickets to your suite? Can you come in and use the suite when there isn't a game? I don't get it...

As a Dallasite, I am actually kinda hoping this bankrupts Jones, the Cowboys, and Arlington. I really hate Arlington.

@outlulz: I only know a couple of people who could afford this, and neither one would put up with it. On the other hand, their kids, kids of others at the same level of wealth and even puffed up employees of these people would.

Corporate execs definitely would with corporate money, and I bet these suites were aimed at oil execs using company entertainment dollars. That's probably not going to fly now, though.

@Trai_Dep: First, Texas is not subsidizing the Stadium. Arlington, TX is. And it will end up bankrupting them.

@Trai_Dep: no no see they don't' have insurance because they're lazy and won't get jobs. geez don't you know anything...

It's one thing to charge that much for a suite. It's a unique offering with no true comparison. And while I think it's still way, way too much to charge, it's not like you could go down to the other Cowboys Stadium and get the exact same experience for cheaper. Being able to afford stuff like this is a benefit of being super rich.

But charging $90 for a pizza would just be insulting to me, no matter how much money I had. Throw that onto the cost of the suite and I wouldn't notice, but try to tell me I should pay $90 for a pizza and I would probably tell you where you could stick it. I guess it's the idea that I could get the exact same product for 10% of that outside the stadium.

As for the beer, is $66 really more than you'd pay at a typical stadium concession stand? That's only $5.50 per beer. There are bars that charge that much.

For some reason the pizza would really irk me though.

You rent the suite, which you have full access to, but you need to get into the stadium first, and they won't let you in without a ticket.

Not suprised. Dallas TX is in love with conspicuous consumption. It's part of the culture. I lived there through both flush times and economic downturns, and regardless of circumstances, many folks continued to take pride in and brag about their lavish, frivilous overspending.

So yeah, this will work.

They're just trying to get ahead of the inflation curve. In a few years $7.50 Juicy Fruit will be commonplace. LOL.

@outlulz: Do the math.

If I have $50 million to my name, and I spend $66 for a case of beer, that's like someone with $100K spending 13 cents. Now, if I insist on not paying more that $20/case, that's like that poor sap with $100K saving 9 cents.

The curse of being rich is that most of the stuff to buy out there is priced for us poor losers.

this should be up on slickdeals and fatwallet. seems like a deal to me!

@rpm773: But you're still being charged $66 for a case of beer that costs $20 a case, purely because you're rich. Other than Trustafarians, people who are rich don't stay rich if they fail to notice that kind of thing.

I refuse to spend money in Arlington since that monstrosity of a waste of money was announced. I want none of my tax money going to that place. Jerry Jones is laughing all the way to the bank they way he ripped off the residents of Arlington. Not too mention the people who lost there houses to the false claim of eminent domain to build the piece of shit.

@TinkishDelight: i think it means you better be prepared to pony up another couple hundred thousand for the tickets. i believe the box owner has the option to purchase as few or as many tickets as they want (up to the capacity of the box), which may be why that cost is left out.

no one else gets to use your suite, however, there are typically usage requirements with these boxes. for example, you might be obligated to purchase a food minimum or you'll be charged a "didn't eat" fee.

@TCama: this is nothing new...its just like the old stadium...you have to buy the tickets to every game even if you have a suite.

@TinkishDelight: you are buying the right to the suite for the year...you then have to purchase tickets to any event that is there whether it be a cowboy game, concert, NCAA game or anything else....its the same thing if you were to buy 3 seats for the season or the 20 year package they are selling. you have the rights to those seats but still have to buy the tickets.

@outlulz: This stuff is targeted at people who don't know or care how much every day items cost. Most of them don't even know their own zip codes or phone numbers.

Think how high the prices would be if that sorry franchise ever won a playoff game !

@mythago: Oh, I'm not defending the principle of it. I'm just saying I suspect most of the rich can't be bothered quibbling over such a small relative difference for 24 beers, particularly if you're among your affluent peers.

And, regarding my example, $50 million is a drop in the bucket compared to those worth 10s of billions of dollars.

@rpm773: But, in many cases, the rich got to that position by avoiding stupid financial decisions -- like paying 10x as much for something for no reason.

@outlulz: I doubt you'll find a whole large pizza at the snack stand for $10.

Sure it's expensive, but all food and beverages at pro sporting events are. That's what tailgating is for.

I worked at a fancy hotel a while back and was helping out in the very overpriced hotel when a guy came in and asked about buying a six pack to take back to his meeting room. The bartender actually told him to have me drive him down the street to a liquor store where he'd be able to get one for a reasonable price (I was a chauffeur at the time). The bartender was pretty reasonable and she bluntly told him she'd had no way to ring it up other than the cost of 6 individual beers and that it'd be way overpriced. This guy didn't care, the total came to somewhere in the $30ish range, I remember he dropped two $20 bills on the bar and said to keep the change. Somehow I don't find the beer charge of this stadium to be so high people will not buy it.

Texans don't have a problem with this because they know can just get the pizza sliced into twelve pieces instead of six.

@rpm773: the part about it not including game tickets probably means that that is what you pay for the right to have first rights to buy tickets there. Every game they ask you if you are going to buy, and if not, they try to sell to someone else.

@HomersBrain: Ummm, they do have 5 Super Bowls to their name...granted, no play off wins in 13 years but not every can be the Patriots and Steelers.

$66 for a 12 packs is a steal as far as stadiums are concerned.

I'm just curious as to what mechanism they use to set these prices.

Obviously this suite is only going to be used by the richest of the rich. People who literally do *not* care how expensive something is. They're up in their suite, they want some beers, so they say "hey bring us some beers" and it gets added to the bill and ends up being 1% of the total cost.

But apparently there is SOME sort of place where a line is drawn. And that line is $90 for a pizza. As if even Jerry Jones himself would say "No way in hell I'm paying nintey-ONE dollars for a damn pizza!"

@MichaelBrazell: True. I had a longer comment, and the commenting issues caused it to be eaten.

@outlulz: It always shocks me when sports teams/movie theaters/etc offer food at such an incredible mark up. It's one thing when people don't know how much it is supposed to be, but most people know a Red Bull is $2 a 12-pack is $12 and a pizza is $15. So when you charge more than that they know you are trying to screw them, plain and simple. They should offer items that sound expensive and aren't so common if they really want to legitimately rip people off.

The Dallas Morning News disputes the pricing quoted in this article, and I'd consider it more trustworthy than a Nebraska Cornhuskers blog. Apparently pizzas are $60 for a 20 inch with toppings, the same price as last year.

@TinkishDelight:

You pay for the suite for the year, if at one game you have 20 people, you pay the price for 20 tickets. If at another game you have 6 people, you pay the price for 6 tickets to see the game.

I have no idea how much the cost of the ticket is but you can expect it will be much higher than the nosebleed tickets the hoi-poi are paying.

The Cowboys actually set their pricing on a scale based on how many days since their last playoff victory.

@K-Bo: The problem with that is that when you lease the suite, it is technically your property (unless there is some serious legal wrangling going on with the contract). If it isn't...that is one freakin' expensive useless timeshare!

For a $90 cheese pizza, that pizza had better be 5'x10'

@crymson777: I can't see why it would be hard to get in the contract that if you aren't using it, they can let others use it, just as long as it gets cleaned and all after. In reality, I can't imagine paying that much for the suite, and not going to every single game.

It seems like fans will pay anything. The ones that run the stadium are the smart ones. The stupid ones are the fans for paying the price. If I owned a stadium I would raise the prices until I was able to see that a maxium price point was reached and demand started to drop. $800k per year? If you can get it good for you. Personally, I would shoot for $2 million.

In NY, fans were cashing out their retirement plans to pay the new license fees the Giants started to charge season ticket holders.

@pb5000: Um, that's "very overpriced hotel bar"

@mdoublej: sure it wont be $10 but it wont be $90 either at the normal concession stand.