Tap water is free -- unless you’re a sports fan and the stadium wants to charge you $5

While most NFL fans were paying attention to players kneeling (or not) during the national anthem, some fans at the New England Patriots game were looking for water during a particularly hot (well, the high 80s at any rate) afternoon at Gillette Stadium.

They weren’t finding it, according to Boston 25 News, which reported that concession stands ran out of bottled water for a short time during Sunday’s game.

Fans were offered tap water instead – for $4.50 a cup. Several fans complained on social media in tweets that were thick with sarcasm.

The Patriots apologized and said it only happened while they were waiting for bottled water to be restocked in the stands, according to the News 25 story.

“That should not have happened. It is the first time that I have ever heard that complaint here. We are looking into the matter to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” Patriots spokesperson Stacey James said.

Facebook commenters (those not blaming Patriots owner Robert Kraft) had a number of theories about how this could happen, overlooking the question of whether it’s even legal to charge for tap water.

“It's all about counting cups but the employees mostly young kids didn’t know what to do,” read one comment. “They were afraid of giving out the cups and not having the correct amount of cash in the draw to reflect cups sold.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2017 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Tap water is free -- unless you’re a sports fan and the stadium wants to charge you $5."