Tens of thousands of American families relish their visits to the local or favorite sports stadium to watch their team take on an opponent on the field, court or rink.

I recall my dad taking my brothers and me to watch the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team play. We didn’t have a lot of money and sat in the cheap seats behind the outfield. It was a real treat when dad would splurge and buy us boys a hot dog or box of popcorn. Sometimes, we would save our allowance and earn extra money and save it for the next outing at the original Busch Stadium. We would buy a souvenir and once, I recall buying my own hotdog and soft drink.

Millions of kids over many years have filled their bellies with stadium food – hotdogs and popcorn, all washed down with their favorite soft drink. Over the years, the range of stadium edible choices expanded to hamburgers and nachos. Today, a growing number of stadiums offer full meals, even some gourmet dishes.

I live just south of Cincinnati home to the Reds and Bengals. The Reds play at Great American Ballpark and they offer such temptations as goetta burgers, goetta fry box, Queen City wicked sausages, Queen City fried garlic bologna, BLT dog, street tacos, smokehouse bowl, smoked bone-in chop, smoked turkey wing or chicken wing and candy cane waffle cone, among others.

At Paul Brown Stadium where the Bengals play, they serve the following tasty treats: pb & red pepper jelly burger, spicy chorizo burger, alpine burger, buffalo chicken tots, Texas chili tots, Asian beef tator tots, Sonoran hot dog, classic cheesesteak, roasted pork tacos, chicken tacos, steak tacos, tortas, fruit parfait, veggie wraps, quinoa grilled chicken salad, lemongrass chicken breast, Korean beef steak skewer and more.

Back when I was a kid, no one was concerned about how safe or healthy the stadium delicacies were, but after a recent report, you want to be more concerned.

However, if you attend a game Great American Ballpark, Paul Brown Stadium or any other sports venue, you may want to think twice before you indulge yourself at any of the concession stands, per a recent report:

“You may want to think twice about ordering food at these professional team’s stadiums in the future.”

“A new ESPN’s Outside the Lines report revealed stadium venues that had the highest and lowest percentages of food service outlets where inspectors found at least one or more high-level violation.”

“ESPN reviewed more than 16,000 food-safety inspection reports from 2016 and 2017 from health departments for the 111 professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey facilities in North America. According to the report, at about 28 percent of the venues, half or more of the food service outlets incurred a high-level violation—meaning one that poses a potential threat for foodborne illness.”

“Violations across the country included live mice and cockroaches, food at unsafe temperatures and employees wiping their faces with their hands and then handling food. There was even beer leaking from the ceiling at one arena.”

By now, you are wanting to know which stadiums were the safest and which ones were the worse. According to the report:

“The three venues with the highest violation rates were Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. (92%), the now closed Palace of Auburn Hills near Detroit (86.11%) and American Airlines Center in Dallas (83.08%).”

“The three venues with the lowest violation rates were NRG Stadium in Houston (4.44%), State Farm Arena in Atlanta (4.17%) and Oracle Arena in Oakland (1.12%).”

What about Great American Ballpark and Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, our local news reporter that they were both the 8th worse in both leagues.

If you want my advice, eat hearty before going to the game and save your money and the chance of having to visit your doctor or emergency room.