The Hawks are selling CHEAP arena food. Here’s the correct way to budget $15

The Atlanta Hawks will not be very good in 2018-19. They are, after all, the team that traded for and then immediately waived Carmelo Anthony just to get rid of their leading scorer’s contract. Their top returning player is Taurean Prince. Their big free-agent signing this summer was Vince Carter, a man who appropriately broke into the league as a Raptor in 1998 since he is now the same age as Richard Attenborough was in Jurassic Park.

But tickets for this year’s Hawks games will probably be cheap, and the food and drinks at Phillips Arena definitely will.

Atlanta unveiled its new concessions pricing for the upcoming year, and it’s surprisingly affordable for stadium food. The Hawks took a page from the Falcons’ playbook to offer fans cheap concessions and the opportunity to eat/drink their feelings whenever Dennis Schroder comes back to town to lead the Thunder to a 132-98 victory.

This revised menu offers a new world of culinary options to the broke basketball fans among us. $15 at TD Garden, where the Celtics play, will get you a beer and 80% of a hot dog. At Phillips, it could be an entire meal. So how do you spend it?

Christian D’Andrea: This is my foolproof plan. First, you start with your base: the $4 bottomless soda. As someone who uses Chick-Fil-A lunch trips to guzzle down at least 132 ounces of Coke Zero, the refillable beverage is the bellwether of this menu.

As tempted as I am by a $5 beer, the (exclusions apply) gives me pause. That almost certainly means you’re dealing with light macrobrews in that category and paying a few dollars more for Georgia stalwarts like Sweetwater or Terrapin or Reformation. Rather than settle on Bud Light, I’ll just roll with my soda (with or without some expertly stashed airplane bottles to keep it company).

From there, keep it simple: two hot dogs and one order of nachos. Not only do you get a pair of stadium staples, but you can also dip your dogs in the leftover nacho cheese as our forefathers envisioned. With your $2 left over, you’ve left enough room for dessert. Ideally, that’s either peanut butter cups or Sour Patch Kids.

Summary:

Total: $15

Matt Ellentuck: Folks, I’m cheap as hell.

You best bet I will be skipping lunch before attending a cheap sporting event with cheap food options, some of which are BOTTOMLESS.

As a true cheap-o, watch me snag both the bottomless soda AND the bottomless popcorn. That’ll hold me over on both basic needs — food and drink — for whatever quantity I want no matter how much I don’t want more of either. They’re foolproof fallbacks for if I make a horrific mistake with my remaining $7.

So next, I need some type of meat with my popcorn and I’m going to go with the hot dog because nobody’s watching me eat nachos at a game. That’s a good way for my Kevin Huerter jersey to get messy.

I’ve got $5 leftover, and as a true young-20-something, I know way better than to buy alcohol at the event. I’m pregaming the hell out of this anyway.

I’m getting a bag of chips and fries because I don’t care much for my health.

Summary:

Total: $15