Nearly $40 for Three Waters During an Extreme Heat Warning?
Would you pay $39.69 for three waters? One attendee at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum says that is exactly what she paid while trying to stay hydrated during this week’s exceptional Los Angeles heat — at the same time residents across the region were being warned to drink plenty of water and avoid heat illness.
Her original TikTok flashed the eye-popping total — “$39.69 for WATER?!?!” — and understandably had viewers wondering whether one single cup had somehow reached cocktail pricing. In a follow-up, she clarified that the total was actually for three waters. That makes the math less surreal, but hardly cheap: $13.23 per water as purchased.
Watch the TikTok That Started the $39.69 Water Debate
The original post shows the attendee holding a standard clear disposable plastic cup while calling out the $39.69 total she says she paid for water at the Coliseum.
Images: @stephanielizabeth08 / TikTok.
The Bottom-Line Math: $13.23 Per Water as Purchased
The clearest number is the one she actually paid: $39.69 divided by three comes to $13.23 per water. Interestingly, if the entire purchase was taxed at Los Angeles’ 10.25% sales-tax rate, the numbers back out exactly to $36 before tax — or $12 per water. Without the itemized receipt, however, INYIM cannot independently confirm the concession’s listed pre-tax price or whether any other charge was included.
That does not mean the vendor pocketed $12 in profit on every cup. Stadium concessions carry labor, staffing, equipment, insurance, card-processing costs, transportation, venue commissions and other overhead that cannot be determined from the receipt alone. But the direct materials going into a cup of ice water are another story.
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Water at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The Coliseum permits sealed water and empty refillable bottles under its standard guest policy, while venue hydration stations provide free drinking water.
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And No, That Wasn’t Even a Souvenir Cup
The cup shown in the attendee’s video is a standard clear disposable plastic cold cup, not a branded souvenir vessel that a guest might reasonably expect to pay a premium for. We still do not know the Coliseum concessionaire’s actual supplier, cup size or wholesale contract, so the vendor’s true unit cost cannot be stated as fact.
But current restaurant-supply pricing gives a much more realistic comparison than a souvenir-cup estimate. Standard clear 32-ounce PET cold cups currently list at roughly 14 to 23 cents each depending on brand and quantity. A high-volume stadium operator could pay differently — potentially less — under a commercial contract.
The water itself is almost negligible by comparison. LADWP’s current lowest-tier city water rate is $11.794 per hundred cubic feet, with one hundred cubic feet equal to 748 gallons. At that rate, 32 ounces of municipal water costs well under one cent — roughly four-tenths of a cent.
Ice adds more, but still not much at direct-material level. A Los Angeles ice supplier currently lists a 20-pound bag of cubes at $6. If a large cup uses roughly half a pound of ice, that is about 15 cents worth of ice. Using those public comparisons, a standard plastic cup, municipal water and ice could plausibly total only around 30 to 40 cents in direct materials for a large serving.
That is not the vendor’s total cost to serve the drink. Stadium concessions also carry labor, staffing, equipment, insurance, credit-card processing, transportation, venue commissions and other overhead. But it does put the raw materials into perspective against a purchase that worked out to $13.23 per water.
Her Follow-Up Clarified the Total — Not the Complaint
In the follow-up, she clarifies that the $39.69 charge covered three waters and pushes back on viewers who focused on the quantity rather than what she sees as the larger issue: the price of basic hydration.
The Comments Quickly Turned Into a Water-Price Revolt
Her comment section made it clear the complaint was landing with people well beyond the person who actually paid the bill. One commenter joked about pretending to faint in front of the medical tent for free water, another wrote that even seeing the price was making them angry despite it not being their money, and a third said they would rather drink from the sink than spend nearly $40 on water.
The Coliseum Already Has Free-Water Options — If You Know About Them
The frustrating twist is that the Coliseum itself already provides ways around buying concession water. Under its standard guest policy, attendees may bring up to two factory-sealed bottles of water, 17 ounces or smaller, per person, along with an empty reusable non-metallic bottle that can be filled inside.
And in December 2025, LADWP and the Coliseum announced the completion of 21 hydration stations throughout the venue, giving visitors access to free tap water. The venue’s dedicated heat-advisory guidance goes even further for applicable hot-weather events: it says non-metallic bottled water may be brought in without size or quantity restrictions, refillable bottles are allowed, and free cups of ice are available at permanent concession stands.
Whether those expanded heat rules were specifically activated for Tuesday night’s event is one of the questions INYIM is seeking clarification on.
Downtown Los Angeles Hit 101 Degrees — Just One Degree Shy of the Record
This was not merely a warm October evening. The National Weather Service had an Extreme Heat Warning in effect across Downtown Los Angeles and surrounding areas on Tuesday, October 6, with the warning continuing through Thursday evening and officials urging people to drink plenty of fluids, stay out of the sun and use air conditioning when possible.
At the National Weather Service’s Downtown Los Angeles climate station, the temperature reached 101°F at 12:05 p.m. on October 6. That was a staggering 21 degrees above the normal daily high of 80°F. It did not quite break Downtown L.A.’s October 6 record of 102°F, set in 1971, but it missed it by only one degree.
The heat wave was record-breaking elsewhere in the region. The National Weather Service reported that Burbank Airport reached 101°F, breaking its previous October 6 record of 100°F set in 1964. So while Downtown Los Angeles itself stopped just short of a daily record, the broader heat event was absolutely producing record temperatures across the county.
The attendee appears to have been at the Coliseum for Mexico vs. Chile, the Mexican men’s national team’s MexTour friendly on Tuesday night. The match was officially scheduled for October 6 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, giving the water-price complaint an especially pointed backdrop: a major outdoor event, a packed stadium and temperatures that had pushed Downtown L.A. into triple digits earlier that day.
None of that proves the concession price was improper, and the $39.69 total should not be misrepresented as the price of a single cup. But $13.23 per water as purchased is still enough to raise a fair question about what hydration should cost inside a major venue during extreme heat — particularly when the same venue is simultaneously telling guests to drink plenty of water.
INYIM Media has reached out to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for comment and for clarification on the concession pricing, the vendor responsible for the sale, and what heat-specific hydration measures were in effect for the Mexico vs. Chile match. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Sources: @stephanielizabeth08 / TikTok; Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum; Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; National Weather Service; California Department of Tax and Fee Administration; Selección Nacional de México; East Side Ice Co.; WebstaurantStore.
