Saving money at sporting events

As you know, Kris and i went to the Twins game on Monday. It was awesome. However, outings like that are kind of expensive. Here's some tips to save money at sporting events (but still have fun.)

• We eat before we go. Then we aren't dying of hunger by the time we get there, and buy less of the very expensive food at the stadium.
  
• We bring our own snacks. i usually bring salted peanuts in the shell from the grocery store, (about 1/3 of the price as at the game) and i tend to bring some kind of gummy snack, also bought in bulk at the grocery store.
  
• We take the light rail to the game. Public transportation is awesome when it comes to big events. We park at the Mall, pay $6/person round trip, and are dropped off at the light rail stop in front of the Dome. If we would have driven, it would have been more expensive to park, and we would have had to park blocks away from the Dome. If we hadn't had light rail, we probably would take buses. Parking downtown is awful during sporting events, so the light rail is a life saver.
  
• We bring our own drinks/try not to buy drinks. i'm not actually sure if this is allowed, to bring your own drinks. At least at the Metrodome, they have a "no caps" policy on bottled beverages. But i bring a couple bottles of water in the diaper bag. When they look through it, they don't say anything, but maybe they think the water is for the baby? i'm not sure. So, try bringing your own drinks. They are very expensive at the game.

We do buy food at games. We could live without it, but Kris and i really must each have a hot dog at baseball games. Remember how hot dogs are the only way he got me to go to games originally? It's kind of a tradition for us now. We even served hot dogs at our wedding reception. So we do buy hot dogs, and Kris usually gets a soft pretzel. It is just one of those things we choose to "splurge on". We try to save money in places so we can spend a bit in others.