Royals, Chiefs Facing Health Code Violations at Concessions

Kansas City is known for a great many tings, one of which is their excellent barbecue. Naturally, it would be expected that a city with such a proud culinary heritage would have the finest of foods available in their concessions for game day, right? Well, not so fast my friends!

As it happens, the concessions for both the Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs appeared to have the same hygienic conditions as Vinnie Schtulman’s apartment in the second Police Academy movie. According to Jon Costa, the food safety manager at both stadiums, Schtulman’s apartment may have been safer for food, given the plethora of issues found. Cockroaches in vending machine, expired food being served – even during the World Series, ladles being put in used trashcans as a holding spot and rodent fecal matter on the same tray as the pizza dough are but a few of the numerous health issues that both stadiums faced.

Naturally, Costa claims he made these concerns known to management for months, to no avail. Predictably, those safety issues caused the city health department to find literally dozens of health code violations during their inspection earlier this month. With that being the case, Costa then went to the Four Letter Network and the local media with his tale of filth and spoilage.

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When the Kansas City Royals went out and put together a payroll of over $92 Million last season, and David Glass gave Dayton Moore permission to add even more payroll at the trade deadline, one had to figure that the money came from someplace. While we all thought that Glass was taking a hit on his bottom line, it may just have been that the money was saved on storage, hygiene and food quality. Need a place for boxes? Put them in the sink! No need to wash your hands – that costs money on the water bill.

Or it could be that, quite frankly, the Royals are not used to having baseball in Kansas City in October. After all, it had been silent in Kauffman Stadium in October since 1985. If the bins for food are labelled by month, maybe some of those hamburg buns were relics from back when Dan Quisenberry was closing out games and George Brett was about to tear an umpire apart with his bare hands.

Of course, the Royals and the Chefs….err…Chiefs….would certainly have plausible deniability in this. After all, Aramark is supposed to be handling their concessions, so it is not as though they are specifically enforcing their own policies and agendas. However, both teams obviously have the financial wherewithal to have their own concession company, or to hire their own staff and cut out the middle man. After this debacle, coming on the heels of one of the more successful seasons in Royals history and at a time when the Chiefs have once again found their way to relevance, it may be time to do just that.

Kansas City is home to some amazing barbecue. Maybe, instead of filling up at the ballpark, it is best to give one of those restaurants a go before or after the game.