Ballpark Dining Goes High-Tech

by Jason Best, Posted Sep 24th 2010 @ 4:00PM

Hot dog and fries at Phillies baseball game Photo: ShellyS, Flickr

Don't want to spend the seventh-inning stretch standing in line for food? There's an app for that.

Major League Baseball Advanced Media is testing a new iPhone app at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, home of the Phillies, that allows fans to order food and have it delivered directly to their seats. If all goes well, the plan is to have the service available at ballparks across the country by next season.

The food-delivery option is bundled with MLBAM's At Bat 2010 iPhone app, which offers live streaming games, stats and scores and and currently sells for $7. It's not clear whether, beyond having to buy the app, there will be an extra fee for food delivery on top of the already sky-high ballpark prices (e.g., $13 for a BBQ turkey sandwich).

While it doesn't look like you can order beer through the app (darn!), and the food selection is limited, the app does make some of the park's most popular menu items available, including the Philadelphia cheese steak, Tony Luke's roasted pork, Planet Hoagie's Italian hoagie, and the Eastern Shore crab-cake sandwich. Delivery is also available at every seat in the park (except luxury boxes, where, obviously, the price of admission already includes fawning wait staff).

And while target delivery time is 30 minutes, in trial runs the time has been more like 10 to 12, which, after a few beers, is probably less time than it would take you to find your way from the bleachers to the bathroom.

Filed Under: Gadgets
Tags: ballpark food, BallparkFood