You May Be Able To Get $10 Yankees Cocoa On Saturday

It may be hard for Yankees fans to find a bright spot in last night’s 11th inning loss against the Angels, but we’ll try: If they lose again and force a Game 6 on Saturday, you’ll get at least one more chance this season to try Yankee Stadium’s hot cocoa — for just $10 a cup.

SI’s Peter King tried the exorbitant elixir at last Saturday’s Yankees-Angels match up, where the bombers fared better but fans had to endure rain showers and temperatures in the 40s.

Sixteen ounces of chocolate-flavored water. Ten bucks. I went online to try to quantify the profit margin, and the best I can figure is the Yankees must be making about $9.15 profit on each hot chocolate sold. I looked at a bulk shopping site, nextag.com, and figured that bulk Swiss Miss would be 23 cents a serving, an insulated cup and lid a combined 6.5 cents, and let’s call the hot water 5 cents. And let’s say the vendor makes 50 cents per cup sold … If that figure is right — or close — it means the team makes approximately 91 percent profit on every sale of the watery cocoa.

Readers of this column know I’m a faithful follower of the Red Sox. And maybe the Yankees aren’t any different from many teams and many products all over sporting America. It’s just that, $10 for a cup of hot chocolate, I think we’d all agree, is over the top.

While King doesn’t mention that the cocoa comes in an “inaugural season souvenir hot cup,” that fact apparently offers cold comfort to other customers, who have pointed out that the cup barely manages to keep the cocoa warm. Besides, if there is a Game 6, and it ends like last night’s game, you may be better off picking up another commemorative Yankees beverage container: the official Yankees boilermaker set, just $21.99 at MLB.com.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me [SI.com]
Get Yer $10 Hot Chocolate at Yankee Stadium! [Gothamist]

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