One, Two, (Price) Hike for 2 Stadium Beverages

The price of coffee and 16-ounce cups of beer will increase by a quarter at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, beginning with the San Diego Padres’ first exhibition game March 30.

The price changes, the first in seven years for a cup of coffee, were approved Thursday by the Stadium Authority’s Board of Governors. The stadium’s concessionaire, Service America Corp., said the prices, which include sales tax, must be increased to cover rising expenses, including the recent half-cent sales-tax increase to finance jails and courts.

Sports fans will pay $2.25 for a 16-ounce cup of beer and 75 cents for an 8-ounce cup of coffee. All other food prices will remain the same. The 22-ounce cups of beer sold last year will not be available at Padres games this year, a Service America spokesman said.

Service America will add a deli section--with sandwiches, salads, juices and crab rolls--in the Sports Club on the plaza level. Other concession stands will maintain the existing menus, with the possible addition of an eight-slice pizza that would cost $15, or about $1.87 a slice. Pizza is now sold by the slice for $2.25.

Stadium concession sales were down slightly last year from 1987.