While I was spending ten minutes* waiting for my exorbitantly priced** food to arrive during Saturday’s women’s basketball games at the Iowa Events Center, I had nothing better to do than look closer at the stuff by the concession stand (in this case, the one in the “club section”).
What’s wrong with this picture? No, besides the $5.50 charge and use of the word “soda” instead of “pop.”
The word official is misspelled. There’s only one I there.
I do not know if these posters are unique to Des Moines or are for all venues. Either way, someone erred.*** (By the way, the women’s Final Four is at the Pepsi Center. How will that situation be handled?)
That wasn’t the only adventure in spelling of the day. It turns out that the scoreboard on the ad ribbon around the second level has an eight-character limit. “Tennessee” was “Tennesse.” After I pointed this out to someone who relayed the message, it was changed to “UT” for the game, although “Tenn” would have done just fine. Better an abbreviation than questions about “is that misspelling intentional?”
*That was after six to eight minutes in line. I did two things during the 27-minute break between games: Use the restroom and wait in line for food. This was crunch time — 1-1:30 PM, between the games so all the fans are there, and all hungry because they arrived before 11. From my limited perspective, it was a disaster. One person received a cheeseburger with no burger. The food was being put out as fast as they could make it, but ten minutes! Once I got the food, it was actually quite tasty, but I had to eat it from my seat after missing the opening tipoff of the Baylor-Georgia Tech game.
**Five bucks for a slice of pizza! Seven for a cheeseburger and fries! Is that how the Iowa Events Center is trying to convince everyone it’s big time, by charging big time prices? Can price-gouging laws be applied to concession stands?
***Yes, I realize this can be throwing stones at glass houses because I’ve been there. However, I point out the errors in an effort to be more conscious myself.