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No joke: Why Coastal Carolina is offering free, unlimited hot dogs, nachos and sodas at football games

Andy Staples head shotby:Andy Staples•04/02/25•

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NCAA Football: Southern Mississippi at Coastal Carolina
Nov 12, 2022; Conway, South Carolina, USA; Coastal Carolina Chanticleers honor veterans as they take the field prior to a game against the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles at Brooks Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports

Chance Miller had to finish a few fine details on the project, but the clock seemed to tick louder with each passing second Monday. The Coastal Carolina athletic director had exciting news to share, but it occurred to him that if he let Monday pass and tried to announce it Tuesday, no one would believe him.

So on Monday night Coastal Carolina’s social channels lit up with the story: Unlimited free hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, soda and water for every ticket-holder at every Chanticleers home football game in the 2025 season.

Some schools have slashed concession prices. Some have sold unlimited food packages. Some have offered unlimited concessions in certain luxury areas.

No FBS school, to this point, had offered to feed an entire football stadium for as little as the cost of a general admission ticket. Which is probably why a reporter from CNN e-mailed chief communications officer Ryan Koslen at 4 a.m. Tuesday wondering if the Chanticleers were playing an elaborate April Fool’s joke.

They were not. It’s real.

As long as he collected them four at a time, Joey Chestnut could down 100 free hot dogs while he watched the Chanticleers play East Carolina or Marshall. A fan could have a fresh Diet Pepsi and a fresh set of nachos for every possession if that fan had the motivation and the willingness to walk to the concession stand.

The obvious question: How does Coastal Carolina make money on this?

 “This is not for moneymaking,” said Miller, who arrived in Conway, S.C., last summer after 11 years at South Carolina — the last five as deputy AD. “We’re trying to build our fanbase here. I’m trying to pack the stadium to have an electric environment.”

Miller is pretty sure how the finances of the gambit will work because he tested it out in December 2023 at South Carolina. That month is a difficult one to draw college basketball crowds. The students are gone. Conference play is right around the corner, and coaches tend to schedule their easiest non-conference competition. So the Gamecocks tried the plan at four men’s games and two women’s games, and they found they almost made back what they would have made on concessions from single-game ticket sales. 

Miller considers this a hearts and minds play for a school that has only played football since 2003, but he’s also a huge believer in the power of data. And this will provide Coastal Carolina’s athletic department with some valuable data.

To get their free food, fans will have to download an app that will generate a code concession workers can scan to keep track of visits. Fans also will have to enter some basic information into the app, and Miller believes the contact info of single-game ticket buyers or fans using their friends’ season tickets will make for incredible leads as the Chanticleers try to grow their season-ticket base. Now, Coastal Carolina ticket office workers will follow up with those fans. And if they had fun, they’re more likely to buy more tickets.

“They’re raising their hand saying ‘I like your product.’ But we never get in touch with them,” Miller said. “This allows us to get in touch with them now.”

Miller sees a big opportunity in a metro area (Myrtle Beach) that is one of the nation’s fastest growing since the pandemic thanks mainly to transplants from the northeast. He jokes that his neighborhood should be called Yankee Stadium because seemingly everyone on his street just moved from New York. Those people may not have a favorite college football team, or they may want to adopt a nearby team to support. 

Miller hopes that if he can pack Brooks Stadium with people curious about unlimited hot dogs, those first-time visitors might ultimately become season-ticket buyers or program donors. If it takes a few buckets of popcorn to get them in the door, it’s a small price.

So when the inquiries poured in Tuesday morning asking the obvious question, Miller offered a definitive answer.

“It’s not a joke,” he said. “We’re gonna do it.”