Creative concession souvenirs have long been dominated by baseball. From ice cream in a mini-helmet to popcorn buckets shaped like Yankee Stadium, ballparks have been the domain of consuming regrettable amounts of unhealthy food and drink out of super fun receptacles for decades. But when it comes to souvenir drinking cup innovations in particular, hockey is suddenly zooming past baseball.
The most recent souvenir cup to entice thirsty sports fans is the Carolina Hurricanes’ Beer Skate. Selling for $19 empty or $12 plus the cost of a drink of choice at the Lenovo Center, the Hurricanes reported that they sold 4,687 Beer Skates on their debut Saturday night for Game 1 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers. That’s one in every four fans who attended that game buying a Beer Skate.
According to ESPN, the Beer Skates sold out during the second period of that game and the Hurricanes won’t be able to restock for the remainder of the playoffs.
“We really thought we had purchased enough, and then this thing just blew up,” Lenovo Center vice president of food beverage Adam Hoffman told ESPN. “I don’t want to say we weren’t prepared for them to buy as many as they did, but obviously we didn’t think it was going to blow up exactly the way that it did, which is just so awesome.”
Now that the Beer Skates have gone viral and sold out at the arena, their value is rising on the secondary market. Beer Skates are currently selling for $200 and more on eBay. However, bidding on several active auctions has climbed above $300.
Another highly sought-after NHL souvenir cup is the Buffalo Sabres’ Beer Sabre. First introduced last season, the Beer Sabre made a triumphant return in recent weeks, further fueling excitement around a team that will next face the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs. Priced at $27 inside the KeyBank Center, limited availability helped drive demand, even if they are a bit awkward to drink from — especially when held by the handle.
The beer sabre chug claimed another victim, but Alec Anderson and Travis Clayton crushed it! 🍻@BuffaloBills | @LabattUSA pic.twitter.com/lrQK8Kg4Gk
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) April 7, 2026
Beer Sabres are currently selling on eBay for around $300.
Elsewhere, the Utah Mammoth introduced the Tusk Mug in April, priced at $26 inside the Delta Center. Although it hasn’t found the robust secondary market that the skate and sabre have, the Tusk Mug further illustrates the variety of creative souvenir cups the NHL is producing now.
It’s a tusk, it’s a mug, it’s a tusk mug! 🦣@utahmammoth @deltacenter pic.twitter.com/p0OaZRmeEZ
— Levy (@LevyRestaurants) April 8, 2026
Souvenir cup strides were made in the NBA this season, too. The Detroit Pistons released a $26 see-through sneaker cup for the playoffs.
The Pistons shoe cup is back for Rnd 2 of the playoffs at LCA, to be filled with your choice of candy, ice cream, beer or this blue tequila cocktail. How many before you boot? pic.twitter.com/6LfPln5fJH
— Will Burchfield (@burchie_kid) May 5, 2026
And the Minnesota Timberwolves were behind the most entertaining souvenir cup of the year: the $30 pop-a-shot dome cup.
New tonight @TargetCenterMN for the @Timberwolves game vs #Mavs – Dome Cup “Floater” for Root Beer and Orange floats – section 106 and 136 Frozen Spoon stands pic.twitter.com/TX04Z4lS4v
— Jeff Münneke (@MinnesotaMunn) February 20, 2026
MLB teams are arguably falling behind their NHL and NBA counterparts. The $25 Trident Cup introduced by the Seattle Mariners last season was an inspired offering and the LA Dodgers’ $75 Shohei Ohtani cup was perhaps the most hotly debated souvenir cup ever for its price point, but the new cooler cups that have been popular at a number of ballparks this season actually hit NFL stadiums first. The Philadelphia Phillies’ recently released throwback colorway cooler cup is selling for the most out of all the different team variations, with sales exceeding $100 each on eBay.
The San Francisco Giants’ version of the dugout cooler cup. (Photo courtesy of Aramark)
Will the success of recent NHL offerings inspire other teams and leagues to devote more resources to souvenir cup research and development? Given how much these organizations value social media engagement and how a variety of collectibles are proving to have a unique pull strong enough to draw people out of the house (movie theaters are also using imaginative custom popcorn buckets to lure in more customers), this might be a trend that continues to spread.
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