COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The SGA tradition commission hosted its ninth annual Crab Feast at Cole Field House last night, with fewer attending than in years past.
About 650 people ate at the dinner, which included four crabs along with a buffet of other food, including barbecue chicken, corn on the cob, green beans, corn muffins, chocolate cake and beverages. Joe Mullineaux, Dining Services senior associate director, said ticket sales normally reach about 1,000.
Mullineaux said this year’s tickets cost $22.50 each, up from last year’s $17.50. The price hike is because of the recent decline in crab populations and the reflected increase in market price, he said. Tickets for the first Crab Feast in 2005 were $10.
“Because this is the earliest we’ve ever had it and this is the first time we broke the $20 mark, and because it’s on a Wednesday … the count’s down a little bit,” Mullineaux said. “The count would actually be higher if we had done it on a Thursday or later in the semester, but all the parties concerned kind of wanted to tie this event into the first home Big Ten game, as sort of a week of special events.”
Dining Services cooked just more than 40 bushels of crabs — with 64 crabs per bushel, some from the Bay, some from its tributaries — in the parking lot behind Cole from about 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Mullineaux said. The event received sponsoring and marketing help from
Dining Services, the Student Government Association, the athletic department, Stamp Student Union and Pepsi.
“We try to get [crabs] from the Chesapeake Bay — doesn’t always happen,” Mullineaux said. “Back when we first started, crabs were going for about $70 a bushel delivered. I think we’re paying about $195 a bushel right now.”
Bryan Farrell, a junior economics major and