Ballpark Food Rogers Centre

A Reminder: You Can Bring Almost Any Food You Want to a Blue Jays Game

I feel like this is one of those “common knowledge” things about the Rogers Centre, but in case you weren’t aware, this is probably one of the best features about coming to a Blue Jays game (aside from the action on the field, of course).

You can bring in pretty much any outside food you want to a Blue Jays game.

The reason for this reminder was brought about by Jake Goldsbie of Sportsfeld fame, who recently posted his latest conquest in bringing in outside food; a charcuterie board.

Honestly, if you're not making a charcuterie board at a baseball game, what are you even doing with your life? pic.twitter.com/UjpVwDhXD2

— Jake Goldsbie (@JGoldsbie) August 12, 2016

According to the Rogers Centre policy, fans are in fact allowed to bring in basically whatever they’d like in the way of outside food. These are the only restrictions below:

Rogers Centre does allow guests to bring food in as long as the items are wrapped, bagged or left inside a container to avoid spillage. Cans, glass bottles, aluminum/steel water bottles or drinks larger than 600 ml are not permitted.

So if you want to bring an extra-large pizza into the Jays game? Go nuts. A quarter chicken dinner? Feel free. A full Thanksgiving meal with turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, squash and pumpkin pie? It’s a huge undertaking, but if you’re up for the task, you can bring it all into the Rogers Centre.

This rule not only includes food, but drinks as well (the non-alcoholic variety, of course). There is a 600 ml bottle restriction, but for the most part, security is pretty lenient. If you were to bring in a 710 ml bottle of Gatorade, you should be okay. However, a 1L bottle of water may be pushing it.

The bottle size isn’t a hard-and-fast rule at every Blue Jays game, it really depends on how thorough security wants to be that particular day. At the very least, if you wanted to bring an entire backpack full of bottles of water, you certainly can.

A pro tip is to grab a hot dog (or in the case of Colby Rasmus – a chicken dog) at one of the stands outside the dome, load it up with all the fixings, and enjoy it inside the Rogers Centre for a fraction of the price.

I can speak from experience that when you’re traveling with kids, bringing in your own food and snacks is essential. Having your own bag packed with Goldfish crackers, juice boxes and granola bars for kids is a life-saver.

For most fans, bringing in outside food is an absolute must to keep costs down, but also because the food offerings at Blue Jays games are often “uninspired” to put it lightly.

Why spend an exorbitant amount of money on subpar ballpark food when you can bring in exactly what you want for free? Rather than spend $5.00 on a boiled hot dog and $5.50 for a bottle of water, why not do as Jake did and put that money towards some salami, a nice loaf of bread and some brie?

Your wallet and your stomach will thank you for it.

Ian Hunter

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez “mine” incident. He’ll also retell the story of Game 5 of the ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.