Charging $4.50 for tap water is not a good look for the Patriots

The New England Patriots expected Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans to be a hot one so they doubled the amount of water bottles they had at the stadium. Unfortunately, demand was four-times the usual amount and the stadium ran out of water bottles around halftime, according to the Boston Globe.

And the next problem is that the concession stands didn’t have those free cups of water that you might typically get at a restaurant, “so concessionaires resorted to selling tap water in soda cups for $4.50.”

Ouch. That’s a really bad look. Tap water for $4.50?! Fans were really just paying for the cup which is ridiculous when you think of how much the up-charge is. The onus is on the stadium to ensure they forecast the proper inventory and they should have had to eat whatever additional cost occurred from their miscalculation, or else they should have known there would be negative backlash. Always plan to have a little bit extra than half of what was needed. Operations Management 101 right there.

CBS Boston collected a few tweets from fans in the stadium to share their reaction, along with a comment from the Patriots.

“We apologize. That should not have happened,” team spokesman Stacey James told CBS after a request for comment. “It is the first time that I have ever heard that complaint here. We are looking into the matter to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

Ordering more water is certainly one way to do it. It’s not like it’ll go bad, right? Having those complimentary cups at each stand would be another solution. And how about a blanket policy of: “If we run out of a BASIC HUMAN NEED, we will not charge fans for it and will provide it free.”

Also, the fact that you can now get a bottle of water AND a hot dog at the Atlanta Falcons new stadium for $4.00, a whole 50 cents cheaper than what tap water costs at Gillette, is something fans should always come back to regarding the stadium experience.