It is only the bottom of the first inning at Citi Field in Flushing, Queens. The Mets are down 5–0—and I have eaten green mole chicken, carnitas, and barbacoa tacos; corn slathered with mayonnaise, cayenne, and cotija; macaroni and cheese with brown butter bread crumbs; corn bread with pimento cheese; a smoked pulled-pork sandwich that could be mistaken for Carolina pit work; two hot dogs; and two different breeds of French fries. Midway through extolling the superiority of crinkle-cut fries to the publicist who has arranged my feast, I polish off a ShackBurger to regain use of one of my hands.

I am not one for such unthinking overindulgence—my husband, not flatteringly, says I eat like a small forest animal—but there exists no protocol for eating one’s way through a stadium. Where do you begin? Should there be courses? Does corn bread follow a trio of tacos, or is it the other way around?

For years the food at sporting events has been (charmingly) terrible. But a restless two-decade-long spree of stadium construction has yielded rewards. And it is no minor-league spree: Some 22 Major League Baseball stadiums have been built since 1990; seventeen new NBA arenas since 1997. The NFL claims five new stadiums and 23 large-scale renovations within the last decade, with three extravagant venues under way: the Atlanta Falcons’ $1.5 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium; the Raiders’ $2 billion desert oasis at the end of Las Vegas’s strip; and the Los Angeles Rams’ gargantuan new home on 300 acres in Inglewood, due for 2020—which, at an estimated $2.6 billion, will be the most expensive stadium complex ever conceived.

It is perhaps inevitable that food would become a front in the stadium wars. Arthur Blank, owner of the Falcons, claims his fans are foodies and demand better choices: “If they don’t have them, they’ll eat at home or at a restaurant.” Football-loving chef and Travel Channel star Andrew Zimmern puts it in more transactional terms: “When I was a kid, $5 got you a good seat at any game. Try spending less than $50 this year.” So it is, in his words, “really fucking insulting to pay $12 for a hamburger that was cooked the day before and reheated and wrapped in aluminum foil.”