Take me out to the ball game, buy me 10K hot dogs. PSU baseball ‘dollar dog’ deal is a hit
For the past four weeks at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, Tuesday night games have seen a swarm of ravenous Penn State students descend upon the stadium, all searching for one thing: the dollar hot dog deal. In the four nights of $1 hot dog deals, Penn State students and fans have consumed more than 10,000 hot dogs.
For a 2023 baseball season with a number of weeknight games scheduled, Penn State athletics decided to host its dollar hot dog deals each Tuesday. What they didn’t expect was a student response that has nearly doubled attendance at baseball games, caused a stir on social media and led to thousands of hot dogs consumed.
“I would have never expected this to like take off the way it did,” said Rebecca Plescia, Penn State athletics director of marketing and fan experience. “So I’m over the moon with how much buzz it’s generating for the baseball team.”
Attendance took off after Onward State wrote an article about eating nine of the dollar hot dogs, one for each inning. The article, combined with rising temperatures and sunny afternoons, has caused attendance to grow rapidly.
The average attendance for the 2022 season home games was 453. This year, with the season still underway, home game average attendance is at 872.
Although dollar dog night is not new to Penn State athletics, this is the first year baseball has used the deal so frequently. Plescia said the deals have not only helped with attendance, she thinks they’ve also boosted the team’s performance and morale.
The Nittany Lions have also gotten in on promoting the deal, dressing up in hot dog costumes and guessing how many hot dogs will be sold at upcoming games.
“Just the excitement and pure joy from these guys, they’re coming down the hallways and they’re saying, ‘I’ve never heard Medlar this loud,’” Plescia said.
During dollar dog nights, it’s not uncommon to see groups of students balancing multiple foil wrapped hot dogs in each hand on their way to their seats. Tuesday’s game sold a total of 5,287 hot dogs, more than the previous three dollar dog nights combined.
“It is insane just keeping up with continually stuffing hot dog buns and getting them out on the warmers because they’re selling them faster than they are making them at this point,” Plescia said. “Which is a great problem to have.”
For many students, including senior Connor Price, the deal has encouraged them to attend Penn State’s baseball games for the first time.
When asked what brought him out on Tuesday, Price said “good weather and dollar dogs.”
Penn State’s final dollar dog night will be Tuesday, April 18.
This story was originally published April 13, 2023 at 5:00 AM.