The Newest Economic Indicator: Hot Dogs

As the Boston Red Sox visit Nationals Park for an interleague series this week, let’s compare the fan experience in both cities:

1. In D.C., Nats Dogs are $4.50 vs. Fenway Franks ($4.75) in Boston. But the Fenway Frank is a vastly superior (and bigger) product – worth your extra quarter and then some.  No one will be putting Nats Dogs in supermarkets as a premium product anytime soon.  Nor will D.C. Catholics probably mind too much if Opening Day falls on a Friday in Lent, unlike their Hub co-religionists in 2004.

2.  In D.C., Ben’s Chili Bowl and Hard Times (both very good but shockingly overpriced, especially for the thin layer of chili spread over a plate of tortilla chips, $9) vs. a piping hot cup of real Legal Sea Foods New England Clam Chowder ($6.50).  Go to U Street for Ben’s.

3. Absurdly overpriced (it starts at $20 and goes up from there) and sharply limited parking near Nationals Park vs. a lot above the Massachusetts Turnpike – above the Mass Pike! – for $15 with a Red Sox ticket stub

4.  Don’t even get me started on ticket prices.  There are a number of cheap seats at Nationals Park, but with attendance generally running so poorly, can the fans at least move down after say, the sixth inning?

5.  Admittedly T-shirts are cheaper at Nationals Park (but, other than Zimmerman, the clothes don’t come with great names like Ortiz, Varitek, Youkilis, and Matsuzaka).

So Fenway wins, hands down. Nationals Park is clean and friendly but overpriced for the product.

And in case you’re wondering why you’re reading all this on NewMajority, consider these points:

(1) The Lerner family, which owns the Nationals, built Tysons Corner, Virginia, the shopping mall which helped to build the modern Fairfax County.  Fairfax County is the kind of place – suburban, high-tech, growing in population and economy – that Republicans used to win regularly and in which they now struggle.  A good part of that has to do with perceptions of quality of life, the “middle-class squeeze,” transportation issues, and the like – and a good part of those feelings are derived from experiences at shopping malls such as Tysons. When the prices of items like sneakers, a movie, and clothes for school or play jump, that affects families’ feelings about inflation and the state of the economy.  People like feeling that they are receiving value for money and consideration of their time.  I don’t blame all this on mall owners, but I do think that there was an awful lot of development in these types of suburbs planned without much thought for quality of life issues.  The late Republican political consultant Lee Atwater knew this well:  before a Presidential race he would quietly travel incognito to places like bowling alleys, diners, supermarkets, and sporting goods stores to get a sense of the mood of the country just from observing and listening to conversations.  Do Republicans have people doing that now?  That’s why knowing the price of a Fenway Frank or a souvenir cap is interesting for politicos, too.

(2) And if the Republican Party doesn’t stand for a family being able to afford a night at the ballpark without feeling pinched, then hard to say what we do stand for.

I’ll be in the Ortiz shirt if you want to talk.  Thanks.