The price of parking may make you sick to your stomach, but it's what inside the stadium that could possibly cause a real stomach ache, according to a new report from ESPN.
ESPN's "Outside the Lines" took a look at health department inspection reports at 107 professional sports stadiums, including 12 in California.
According to the data, the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field and the Washington Wizards' Verizon Center were the top offenders. At each stadium, every single food and drink vendor received a critical violation in the last year.
California performed much better.
"Ten of its 12 stadiums had among the lowest percentages of vendors in violation," according to the report.
Critical or major violations include food temperature, cross-contamination, hygiene, equipment and rodent or insect contamination, according to ESPN.
The Ducks' Honda Center (3 percent) and the Giants' AT&T Park (4 percent) were the top performers in the state.
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The McAfee Coliseum in Oakland posted the worst score in California, with 34 percent of its vendors in violation of health requirements.
The report is careful to point out that so far, food served at professional sports stadiums have never been linked to a mass foodborne illness outbreak.
| Stadium | Team | Vendors with critical violations | Inspection report excerpt: |
| Angel Stadium of Anaheim | Los Angeles Angels | 16% | Most recent inspection reports show improvements on rat-related violations that occurred in prior visits. |
| ARCO Arena | Sacramento Kings | 25% | Inspectors found some shrimp pasta salad at 52 degrees, which was too warm. |
| AT&T Park | San Francisco Giants | 4% | Inspectors found a few instances of food being kept at improper temperatures. |
| Candlestick Park | San Francisco 49ers | 13% | Inspectors found one location with no hot water, posing a sanitary threat. |
| Dodger Stadium | Los Angeles Dodgers | 13% | At least one location had mold growing inside an ice machine. |
| Honda Center | Anaheim Ducks | 3% | The only major violation was for not having chlorine sanitizer in the kitchen's dishwashing machine. |
| HP Pavilion at San Jose | San Jose Sharks | 20% | At one location, inspectors found Chinese chicken salad had warmed to 60 degrees, about 20 degrees above a safe temperature. |
| McAfee Coliseum | Oakland Raiders, Oakland Athletics | 34% | Several locations lacked adequate hand-washing equipment. |
| Oracle Arena | Golden State Warriors | 19% | Potato salad left out at an unsafe temperature during one game was put back into a cooler to be reused. |
| Petco Park | San Diego Padres | 10% | At one location, chicken salad and turkey wraps were measured at 53 to 55 degrees, above safe temperatures. |
| Qualcomm Stadium | San Diego Chargers | 17% | Food was not being held at a proper temperature at at least seven locations. |
| Staples Center | Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings | 11% | One stand dumped 9.5 pounds of sushi after inspectors found that it become too warm. |
