Concession options, sales methods change

“Take me out to the ballgame, take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks. …” Sure, we all know the rest of the chorus for this 1908 baseball song.

Sporting event and concert venue food and drink have certainly changed greatly over the years. Peanuts, popcorn, hot dogs and soda, the standard of days gone by, have morphed into sushi, ethnic specialties, nachos, fresh salads and, most certainly, designer microbrews and bottled waters.

In the past, hungry spectators had to wend their way hundreds of yards to the single concession stand behind or under the grandstand and stand in line there for an inning or two to get served. As an alternative, one could stay seated and patiently wait forever for the food vendor with a soda or popcorn tray strapped around his neck to reach one’s section of the stadium universe.

Today’s concessions are diverse, strategically located among the fans, so that high-quality food and drink are only an arm’s length away. Why all the fuss?

Deep Throat of Watergate fame always said, “Follow the money.” Concession sales are big business, high profit and can mean the difference between an event ending in the black or losing money. The operative term for concession sales is called “per caps,” or per capita sales. These numbers are watched very carefully, always with the goal of increasing them. There are many factors that increase these sales, including weather, temperature, length of the event, comfort level of the seating and the overall quality and satisfaction of the event being watched. The overall strength or weakness of the economy directly affects concession sales.

The Bangor Auditorium, designed and built in the middle of the last century and terminally beyond its prime, watches the per caps very closely and looks to offer a wider variety of new food items, according to director Mike Dyer.

“Our per caps for basketball are in the $2.15 to $2.18 range. That’s for food and beverage; we do not offer beer sales,” he said. “National products such as ice cream bars are very popular with our audiences. For smaller, slower-paced events, we are trying a range of microwaveable products, such as hamburgers and cheeseburgers, soups and stews. We could never experiment during basketball tournaments, as our concession stand gets hammered with traffic.”

Dyer indicated that the new arena should have a wide number of concession stands handy to the fans and perhaps some concession kiosks that would feature Starbucks coffee or other national products. He also noted that when both the boys and girls basketball teams from the same town play back to back, the audience is in its seats for a longer time, thus driving total concession sales higher.

Another terrific advantage of having a larger number of point-of-sale venues is that the waiting lines tend to be shorter, so fans miss less of their favorite teams or their favorite musical artists. Even the venerable Bangor Auditorium has added television monitors near the concessions so the fan misses less of the action. Long lines at the food or beer counters discourage sales to many fans. Having audience members leave the building with money in their pockets because they were unwilling to wait in line certainly plays a large role in reducing sales.

For Hadlock Field in Portland, home of the Portland Sea Dogs baseball team, two concession-related practices come to mind. As the fan enters the grandstand, the first and most prominent concession straight ahead is the beer stand. There must be big profit in those suds. Secondly, there is a huge exhaust fan, high above the crowd on the first base side, which is directly over the onion and hamburger grill below, blowing the sweet and siren-like scent of grilled onions over the masses, certainly triggering many a concession sale.

The summer outdoor sporting season is painfully short here in central Maine. Take the family early and often. Enjoy the concessions. “Root, root, root for the home team. If they don’t win, it’s a shame.”

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