Suns, OVG introduce $2 menu items

SUNNY DISPOSITION: Phoenix Suns owner Matt Ishibia has committed to improving the fan experience at Footprint Center for NBA games, which extends to concession prices. (Getty Images)

Non-NBA events excluded

The Phoenix Suns and OVG Hospitality, their food provider at Footprint Center, have slashed concessions prices to $2 for hot dogs, potato chips, fountain sodas, popcorn and Dasani canned water for all events at the NBA arena.

The new pricing for those five core items takes effect for Suns games only, starting with tomorrow’s game against Indiana, the first of 28 remaining home games in Phoenix.

For concerts and family shows at the arena, those items revert back to their initial pricing — $9 hot dogs, $6.50 for sodas, $7 for both chips and popcorn, and $8.50 for water, which is Footprint Center’s No. 1 selling drink item, said Ken Gaber, president of OVG Hospitality.

That’s noteworthy, considering Footprint Center is a busy arena, which most likely made the deep cuts palatable for both parties. Over the past year, the venue had 65 special events apart from NBA and WNBA games, according to Pollstar data.

Still, it’s a commendable gesture by the Suns and their food partner in an era where concession prices continue to escalate across major league, minor league and college sports. (OVG Hospitality and VenuesNow are both owned by Oak View Group).

For Suns games, the sizes and portions of the $2 items remain the same except for popcorn, which originally came in a souvenir bucket and will now be served in a cardboard container.

The Suns tout the new pricing for those food and drink items as the lowest in the NBA.

Conversely, Footprint Center’s $9 hot dog was comparable to pricing in New York and Los Angeles, said food consultant Mike Plutino.

OVG Hospitality took over the Suns’ food operation starting with the 2023-24 season.

“Pricing at Footprint Center was at major market levels,” Plutino said. “It had risen over the years. It’s one thing to say you can get five things for $20, but not everyone wants to just have hot dogs and popcorn. It needs to be part of a bigger strategy.”

On its own, Footprint Center’s hot dog is a 5 to 1 pound size in concessions parlance, just short of a quarter pound. Slicing $7 off the regular price amounts to a 77% price decrease.

“It’s considered a jumbo hot dog,” Gaber said.

Player 15 Group, the Suns’ parent company owned by Mat Ishibia, who bought the NBA club for a record $4 billion in February 2023, reworked its deal with OVG Hospitality midseason to make the concessionaire whole in exchange for making those deep discounts, Gaber confirmed. He would not disclose the details of the revised agreement, but he said the $2 menu falls in line with Ishibia’s commitment to improving the fan experience.

Gaber said the topic of fan-friendly pricing didn’t come up for discussion until the past few weeks and that’s why the discounts were applied two months into the 2024-25 season.

“It was a pretty easy conversation,” Gaber said. “If you look at the overall partnership of everything we do, from food service to sustainability and the other events we do, we’re all focused on the same thing. We figure out how to make it work. We’ll see how many items we sell and how the numbers work out.”

The Suns follow in the footsteps of AMB Sports and Entertainment, which has had an affordable pricing menu at Mercedes-Benz Stadium since it opened in 2017. Multiple items run from $2 for hot dogs and unlimited sodas to $5 for a small beer.

To their credit, AMB Sports has kept those prices untouched over the past seven years and unlike Phoenix, the pricing remains the same for all events at the venue, including the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four and College Football Playoff games.

Other big league teams have dabbled in fan friendly pricing, but not to the extent of AMB Sports’ initiative in Atlanta.

Ironically, Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s two-highest grossing items are not part of the value menu, Plutino said, including the sweet onion pot roast sandwich, part of local chef and restaurateur Kevin Gillespie’s Gamechanger stand.

“There’s people who will pay $18 to $19 for a phenomenal sandwich that has a name brand attached to it,” he said.

At Footprint Center, there’s no specific timeline for how long the $2 menu will remain intact, and it’s unclear whether it will expand for WNBA Phoenix Mercury games. For now, Gaber said, it’s all about getting the program started and adding more points of sale to meet increased demand.

In Atlanta, stadium officials found out early that selling an enormous amount of hot dogs, sodas and popcorn resulted in a housekeeping issue attempting to keep on top of the all the trash accumulated during an event.

OVG Hospitality has had those conversations with P15, which runs Footprint Center, in preparation for rolling out the $2 menu, including disposal of aluminum cans and paper goods, Gaber said.

“That’s part of the plan, that we have enough receptacles and recyling bins,” he said.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.