The Idaho Steelheads have been accused of a clipping violation of sorts against the fans. A YouTube video appears to have spawned a lawsuit after a Boise fan showed how a $4 cup of draft beer holds the same amount of brew as a “large” $7 cup. The video by Gwen Gibbs is below.
Gibbs was miffed when she watched Gwen Gher boyfriend, Heath Forsey, pour the large beer into the smaller cup.
Four Idaho Steelheads fans — Brady Peck, Michele Bonds and William and Brittany Graham — have filed suit for deceptive business practices against the operator of the sports arena, Block 22 LLC, which does business as CenturyLink Arena. Appropriately enough, the company owner is named Eric Trapp.
Peck described the horror that he felt when he learned the truth after attending at least 30 events over the past three years at the arena. Even if we assume just three beers a game, that would amount to a loss of 12 ounces a game or 360 ounces a year. (Of course, Trapp could ask for credit in cost savings associated with drunk driving and hangovers).
Trapp posted a statement saying that the company will move to 24-ounce cups for its $7 beer instead of the 20-ounce cup. What is interesting is that even moving to a 24 ounce cup from a 20 ounce cup, that would still leave the customers paying $3 for just four ounces — a higher percentage profit on the last 4 ounces than the first 20 ounces. For $8 you would get 36 ounces instead of $7 for 24 ounces.
The fans are seeking $10,000 . . . and justice. [Update: the company announced that it would lower the big cup price to $6. That would still however mean $2 for an extra 4 ounces. That is 50 cents an ounce. Assuming that the small cup holds 20 ounces, that was 25 cents per ounce. There remains a discrepancy of 5 cents per cup. The company could argue that the differential is due to the greater amount of plastic in the cup.]
I will only add that watching the video below reaffirms my faith and optimism in America. These brave steelhead fans are direct descendants of those brave men pouring tea into the Boston Harbor. Next time you see a guy painted salmon-color and wearing a fish on this head, stop and shake his hand. He and his fishy friends are the thin salmon line protecting citizens and their full-sized American beers.
Source: ABA Journal
Even if the beers were 20 oz and 24 oz, anyone who can do elementary school math should be able to figure out that it is more economical to buy 2 20oz for $8 than to buy one 24oz for $7.
I smell a conspiracy here. Are we supposed to believe that the cup manufacturer was producing the cups that held the same volume in different styles to accommodate varying consumer tastes?
Has anyone taken a look at the manufacturers catalogs; a lot of times they include specs on the products.
Lawsuit? Why not a criminal charge for fraud?
A decently accurate watching and noting of the two plastic cups demonstration actually demonstrates that the “seven dollar” cup has slightly greater volume than the “four dollar” cup has; the distance from the fluid meniscus to the brim of the cup is a tad larger with the “seven dollar” cup than it is with the “four dollar cup.”
However, the cost per fluid ounce of beer, with both cups filled to the brim, is significantly less with the “four dollar” cup. As I do not happen to drink beer, and plan never to be at that stadium, that exercise of deception (if deception it be) affects not me.
There is a hamburger chain which, when I lived near one of their locations, offered a double hamburger or double cheeseburger at exactly the price of a single one. The double ones were made by making two single ones, throwing away a quarter of the bread, and stacking the rest. I never got a double hamburger or cheeseburger there, the effective cost of the double, per amount of food, was higher than for the two singles.
I recall a friend working in a food situation (no longer recall where, many years ago where that was the practice for selling drinks, This is nothing new. At Giant foodstore their small salad costs more then if yuo put the same amount in a large salad container (sometimes by as much as 50 cents.) I complained to store and state because it is a weight issue and neither cared
I think the obvious reaction, to me at least, is to not drink the beer at the game.
Chuck,
I have been at some of those drink promotions at bars and it can get kind of ugly.
I like all you can drink bars…. The never empty cup…. Seems like a valid suit to me….
Isn’t also disturbing to think that this LLC is still allowed to operate the stadium? Must be some crony capitalism relationship, since they don’t appear to be the owners, but the operators…. Is my line of thinking correct?
10 cent beer nights were popular back in the 70’s. I never got to one. They ended when the Cleveland Indians hosted the Texas Rangers, managed by Billy Martin. Unruly fans were pouring beer and shouting obscenities @ the Texas players. They picked the wrong team! Billy Martin led his team into the stands, some w/ bats in hand. Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner, banned 10 cent beer nights after that.
Being a former beer vendor @ Royals and Arrowhead Stadiums in KC I suggest you buy your beer from them. They pour your beer right in front of you out of bottles, or sell you plastic bottles. Tip them and they’ll make sure they keep your beered the entire game.
Justin L. Petaccio
Darren Smith: collect yourself. It’s not the end of the world, yet.
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Ah, the most unstable adverb “when.”
As Darren says, beer with me.
Magic falls to science once again.
When Augie Busch owned the St. Louis Cardinals, somebody in the advertising department came up with the idea of a Free Beer Night promotion. I knew better than to go to that game, but a couple of guys from the office went. They looked awful the next morning. Not from drinking too much beer, but from sitting in the middle of 50,000 people who were.
I don’t think they ever tried that promotion again.
Darren Smith: collect yourself. It’s not the end of the world, yet.
I most firmly agree. Why can’t people just forget about this beer controversy and focus on things absolutely more important? In 1897 the other half lived in squalor while robber barons ravaged the purses of the unclothed while Tammany hall politicians drank the blood of turnips. There are millions, millions of krill and plankton murdered every day by humpback and right wales. These Right Wing wales have dominated the oceans’ depths for millenia while dolphins and tuna get dragged into gill nets and stuffed into cans for children to get mercury poisoning. Their poverty stricken parents are forced to feed mercury fish to them due to the 20 hours they spend toiling in the uranium mines.
Why can’t people just pay attention to what is really wrong with the world, 24 hours a day. It is frustrating that people cannot think about anything in life other than the worst cases everywhere and nothing else matters. I am tired of it….
Beer me!
Jamie Dimon & Mike Phillips:
Both make excellent points. I think the “beer at a game” is just a small example of a larger problems as both have articulated so well.
I can’t believe how absolutely ridiculous this is when over 20% of American live at or below poverty levels while minimum wage falls woefully behind, credit card company’s charge outrageous interest rates without reprisal , monopolies on everyday essentials such as food, water, energy, fuel, communications happen everyday that open the door to ramped price fixing that widens the poverty gap and all this because the uber-wealthy have so totally corrupted our political leader at so many levels… but I guess that beer at the game is much more important than any other pressing social issue…
It may reaffirm your faith in America, but it shouldn’t reaffirm your faith in American business. While this beer ripoff is probably something that happens in many locations, bad business actors, such as GM not recalling cars until 303 have been killed by faulty airbags, clearly shows business is more concerned about profit than people and lives. GM has literally had killer profits and no one will go to jail for those deaths. Corporations are people my friend, as Mitt Romney proudly stated, except they don’t go to jail for their crimes; they are rewarded with big bonuses and sweet retirement packages..
Fast-Food joints are screwing the American consumer everyday. When you ask for a drink, the first thing they do is fill your cup up with ice and then put in the drink which amounts to about half a cup. Multiply that times a million and you have a whole bunch of money. But I learned that you can ask for no ice and get more drink.
What happens in Boise, stays in Boise. How they cheat em N Howe. Don’t go to a cathouse there.
In the EU, stringent laws and fill line markings guarantee the consumer an honest, accurate beer fill. So what you want about being regulation heavy, at least you get your beer.