Play ball, bring food.
The Red Sox are, once again, off today. A Thursday. But baseball returns to Fenway Park tomorrow July 25. And things at the ballpark might look a little different.
Concession workers at Fenway announce plan to strike on Friday through Sunday, as the Red Sox play the Dodgers at home, for a new contract
— Michael Sainato (@msainato.bsky.social) 2025-07-23T17:04:07.261Z
After their contract with vendor Aramark expired at the end of 2024, the concession workers of Fenway Park have been urging the food services and facilities manager to negotiate for a new one. One with some conditions — decreased reliance on vending machines and better pay with more consistent scheduling of shifts — stuff you’d expect.
Workers are fighting for these key demands in their contract: 1) citywide-standard wages; 2) guardrails on automation; 3) increased gratuity for Premium workers, who serve season ticket holders and special guests; and 4) fair scheduling that respects workers’ seniority.
With a wide range of duties and responsibilities to keep non-baseball activities running it’s no wonder the union, Unite Here Local 26, reached out to John Henry (and Sam Kennedy) to intervene with Aramark.
What do you need to do?
First of all, no boycott of Red Sox games is required.
In the event of a strike, the union is asking fans who go to the games to avoid ordering food or drink from non-union employees at Fenway Park.
“Go ahead, enjoy the game,” he said. “Just please don’t buy any food or drink while you’re there.”
So everyone is welcome to attend games but to show solidarity. Unite Here Local 26 requests that fans not purchase food or beverages inside Fenway. If you’ve scanned your ticket you’re inside Fenway. If you’re on Jersey Street after the ticket gates but outside, you’re in Fenway. The sausage and hot dog stands outside the ticket scanners are outside the strike zone.
Fair Ballpark Fare
(Disney instructional video voice) “So you’ve decided to attend the ballgame!”
Fenway Park has a lot of rules and policies. But there is one thing you definitely can’t bring (also booze):
Cans, bottles, glass containers except one sealed 16oz plastic bottle of water
Hard-sided coolers
And, speaking from personal experience, they don’t exactly check the ounces of the bottle. Probably best not to bring a gallon jug or one of those big Poland Springs dispensers, but if it’s 20-24oz it’s a bottle of water.
So, water? Good to go. Sausages outside the park? Good to go. Tasty Burger? Enjoy! There’s a new Dave’s Hot Chicken etc.
Can you bring in outside food? This gets a little tricky.
Searching the policies page there is not an outright ban on outside food in the ballpark (and the sausage vendors themselves say you can bring their food in). You can, of course, bring diaper bags or medical bags with essential equipment in them. I don’t think Fenway cares about losing on a non-existent infant hot dog sale.
The accounts online are all over the place. Many of which are AI-generated garbage scraping up anything that seems to have the right keywords. And then people write an article citing a convention that was held at Fenway and said “no outside food” which may or may not be the actual Red Sox policy. The point is there isn’t a definitive answer and you can bring a small bag to the game.
Reddit is full of reports of people bragging about taking entire buckets of chicken or whole pizzas into the park. Take those for whatever value you want.
The takeaways? It’s going to be almost 100 degrees tomorrow. Bring water.
If you bring a bag it needs to be “single-compartment and no larger than 12”x12”x6” and definitely not a backpack. And a reminder, it can’t be a cooler. Can you put snacks in there? It looks like probably yes.
Stay cool, cheer on the Sox. May your pockets be overflowing.