Catering in stadiums - Target Field USA vs the Amex. Are you reading this PB ?

[Poyningsgull]

But then we don't have 81 regular home games a season do we.

At least Baldock might get to double figures if we did.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The learning aspect of this thread for the club should be, that customer service can be good at an event with thousands of people. Setting aside the volume of choice for a moment, that a sports venue with 40 thousand people can have fast efficient and friendly customer service. It's after all the basics of selling anything fast food and drink orientated, from a hot dog van to Mcdonalds. Sadly Sodexo fail on the basics, and verses the American venues are miles behind.

IMHO the club should be looking to hire the services of a world-class consultant on how to manage queues at sporting events. Doubtless, these people do exist. Club should also then be looking to bring the catering in-house. Maybe set up temporary decently-paid contracts with students from the Uni and/or local people with proper previous catering experience who the part-time nature of the work actually appeals to. Recently retired bar staff maybe? Currently we just go with the lowest bid, lowest common denominator generic caterer, who cuts corners and kills the potential revenue stone dead. Just won't do

Looking forward to [MENTION=24867]chaileyjem[/MENTION] piping up once again to defend the indefensible and telling us why it's not possible.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

IMHO the club should be looking to hire the services of a world-class consultant on how to manage queues at sporting events. Doubtless, these people do exist. Club should also then be looking to bring the catering in-house. Maybe set up temporary decently-paid contracts with students from the Uni and/or local people with proper previous catering experience who the part-time nature of the work actually appeal to. Recently retired bar staff maybe? Currently we just go with the lowest bid, lowest common denominator generic caterer, who cut corners and kill the potential revenue stone dead. Just won't do

The flip side of that - the current situation, from the club's perspective - is to avoid all of the management time / costs / hassle of running it in house, and just take a (big) fee, to sell the rights to the catering to a third party (Sodexho). That Sodexho do such a poor job of maximizing their sales, is largely out of the club's control - and this is where we as fans lose out through this arrangement.

FWIW, I believe the must be a third way, and it is how I imagine that a lot of the US venues mentioned in this thread are run. That would be for the club to outsource / sell the catering rights, but NOT as a package. Instead they just sell pitches, both inside and outside the stadium, to any interested parties.

Benefits to the club:
[] Guaranteed income (quantifiable sales of pitches, rather than non-guaranteed volumes of food / drink sales)
[] Avoidance of start up in-house catering costs
[] Avoidance of staffing / management costs of in-house services

Benefits to the fans:
[] Greater choice - if multiple vendors take different pitches (Donatellos / Grubbs / etc / etc / etc)
[] Value - competition for your match-day spend between the different vendors will rule out fleecing the fanbase

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

While this is true, it's a bit rich for an Australian to criticise a fast food culture, when Australia is also one of the most obese nations on earth and also has a culture built around fast food

We have almost identical % as the UK when it comes to overweight people. We aren't even in the top 20 for obese nations.

We aren't built around a fast food culture, there's plenty of other ways to gain weight. We have a high eating out culture which involves pub food and restaurants.

We are also high consumers of snack foods like chips and biscuits. Look at the reverance in which the Tim Tam is held in.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The flip side of that - the current situation, from the club's perspective - is to avoid all of the management time / costs / hassle of running it in house, and just take a (big) fee, to sell the rights to the catering to a third party (Sodexho). That Sodexho do such a poor job of maximizing their sales, is largely out of the club's control - and this is where we as fans lose out through this arrangement.

FWIW, I believe the must be a third way, and it is how I imagine that a lot of the US venues mentioned in this thread are run. That would be for the club to outsource / sell the catering rights, but NOT as a package. Instead they just sell pitches, both inside and outside the stadium, to any interested parties.

Benefits to the club:
[] Guaranteed income (quantifiable sales of pitches, rather than non-guaranteed volumes of food / drink sales)
[] Avoidance of start up in-house catering costs
[] Avoidance of staffing / management costs of in-house services

Benefits to the fans:
[] Greater choice - if multiple vendors take different pitches (Donatellos / Grubbs / etc / etc / etc)
[] Value - competition for your match-day spend between the different vendors will rule out fleecing the fanbase

Totally agree with that, tho the whole thing would need to be pulled together by a club-appointed in-house SUPREMO, maybe even a Director Of Catering Services, complete with goals and targets and performance bonuses. IMHO us punters would see a massive improvement in the Matchday Catering Experience and the club would see a massive improvement to the bottom line.

 

[Cesar Chavez]

Exactly the type of action that is required. Barber has said that ticket sales are not enough to sustain the club at a level most fans aspire to, therefore all ancillary revenue sources must be considered an important part of the budget. With all the allegations of poor quality products and poor service its hard to see how the club are getting the best return from food and beverage sales. Also it's not just about the budget, the customer service aspect is important at this level. The days of pies, pints, and terraces at, this level, are sadly over.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gwylan]

We aren't built around a fast food culture, there's plenty of other ways to gain weight. We have a high eating out culture which involves pub food and restaurants.

From the article I linked to ... "The lack of vegetables in our diet could be attributed, in part, to our penchant for cheap and convenient food. Aussies make a staggering 51.5 million visits to fast food outlets every month ..."

And while it's not in the top 20 yet, Australia and NZ have had a big rise in obesity rates in recent years

 

[Gwylan]

I believe the must be a third way, and it is how I imagine that a lot of the US venues mentioned in this thread are run. That would be for the club to outsource / sell the catering rights, but NOT as a package. Instead they just sell pitches, both inside and outside the stadium, to any interested parties.

I'm sorry but I don't see how that works.

As others have pointed out, this works in US sports because of the length of the game. At the Amex people will turn up maybe 30 minutes before a match, have 10 minutes in the interval and maybe 30 minutes at the end. So, let's assume about a dozen Saturday games that's about 14 hours to sell food, and let's say a dozen evening games - about six hours. That's 20 hours to make money - but you'll have the cost of the concession, the cost of staff, the cost of equipment and the stand itself and the cost of raw materials.

I can't see how stall holders can possibly make any margin - unless they really gouge the customer. In which case, there's little value for fans

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I can't see how stall holders can possibly make any margin - unless they really gouge the customer. In which case, there's little value for fans

There's no shortage of small independent food vendors turning up to one day festivals and events. OK, maybe their prices are sometimes a bit on the steep side. But they have to cover the cost of the stall. and if they pitch the pricing wrong, they'll go home having made a loss. I'd trust them to know their business and get the pricing right, to the benefit of the parties on both sides of the counter. Corporate caterers? Not so much. No matter how many 'awards' they win.

 

[Stat Brother]

I'd be interested to know how many of the queue complainants are from the ESL.

I guess it's the ratio of adults v kids that make the service, on the whole, work.
I certainly don't recognize most of the customary moans from our kiosks.

As a rule it's well stocked, the beer is ready poured, the staff good enough (all things considered) and the peak time queues go down consistently quickly.


FWIW I think [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] is right to question what we are prepared to put up with at inflated prices.
But has seriously cheapened the point by comparing it with baseball, or, for that matter, anything American.

The level of service expected, actually make that demanded, across the pond is a leap to far for lil old blighty.


It's annoying that the clubs 2 mainstays for food and drink, are locally sourced and hugely successful, but it seems unable to kick on from that.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I'm sorry but I don't see how that works.

At the Amex people will turn up maybe 30 minutes before a match, have 10 minutes in the interval and maybe 30 minutes at the end.

This isn't true though. I generally turn up about an hour before kick-off, and there are hundreds of people milling around outside the stadium, and already scores of people queuing at the serveries in the ESL. People queue at least 5 minutes either side of HT, so that's 25 minutes, rather than 10. And at the end, there some people prepared to stay on a while.

Plus - regardless of what people's habits are right now, this is about improving the offering, and thus encouraging changes to those habits.

 

[Gwylan]

This isn't true though. I generally turn up about an hour before kick-off, and there are hundreds of people milling around outside the stadium, and already scores of people queuing at the serveries in the ESL. People queue at least 5 minutes either side of HT, so that's 25 minutes, rather than 10. And at the end, there some people prepared to stay on a while.

Plus - regardless of what people's habits are right now, this is about improving the offering, and thus encouraging changes to those habits.

OK, but even if you triple the amount of time (and that's being generous, there aren't thousands of people there an hour beforehand) - that's about 80 hours a season - that's nothing compared to the 400 to 500 hours that people spend at baseball games (80+ games at five to six hours a time).

But even with all the additional time to make their money, US prices are considerably higher than we pay at the Amex (and this in a country where prices are generally lower). Someone earlier complained about £10 for a bottle of Bud but UK concession holders would have to put up prices much, much higher than that. I don't see how that would benefit fans

But despite the massive time

 

[chaileyjem]

Currently we just go with the lowest bid, lowest common denominator generic caterer, who cuts corners and kills the potential revenue stone dead. Just won't do

They get things wrong, they find it difficult to retain and train staff, there are queues but not everywhere all the time, they are constrained by the law, they run out of stuff, the range of drink and food is limited but Harveys/Piglets is unusual for comparable clubs, the pricing is not cheap but not that different to comparable football, cinema, sporting events and they've inexplicably removed the Harvey's bar from the WSU and this week had a comedy moment where the poor chap couldn't pour a pint of Fosters for most of half time.

but ... "we just go with the lowest bid, lowest common denominator generic caterer, who cuts corners and kills the potential revenue stone dead. " is not quite what is on offer is it...

 

[ewe2]

Not perfect .....! But IMO the best catering the club have offered,i imagine since it was formed.(As always room for improvement )

 

[Hampster Gull]

Not perfect .....! But IMO the best catering the club have offered,i imagine since it was formed.(As always room for improvement )

Tons of room for improvement. Charge premiership rates and expect abuse if you fall short. This stuff bores me but we are asked to pay a fortune and treated li,e customers not fans. If thats the mindset of the exec then we should be critical when they fall short

 

[Bozza]

So here's the menu for Target Field: http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ballpark/information/index.jsp?content=concessions

Some prices (assumptions: there is no sales tax to be added to these prices (but there might be, which would make things more expensive) and an f/x rate of £1=$1.30)...

Bottle of water - £3.84
Bottle of coke etc - £4.23
Basic beer - £5.76 / £6.53
Fish & chips - £8.46
Fries - £4.23
Slice of pizza - £4.61
Burger with fries - £9.61
Steak sandwich - £12.30
16" pizza - £23.07 - £27.69

I think [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] was pissed up when he thought it was cheap compared to the Amex...

 

[Driver8]

So here's the menu for Target Field: http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ballpark/information/index.jsp?content=concessions

Some prices (assumptions: there is no sales tax to be added to these prices (but there might be, which would make things more expensive) and an f/x rate of £1=$1.30)...

Bottle of water - £3.84
Bottle of coke etc - £4.23
Basic beer - £5.76 / £6.53
Fish & chips - £8.46
Fries - £4.23
Slice of pizza - £4.61
Burger with fries - £9.61
Steak sandwich - £12.30
16" pizza - £23.07 - £27.69

I think [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] was pissed up when he thought it was cheap compared to the Amex...

I bought two pints of lager at Maddison Square Gardens when I went to watch the NYKnicks and it was $23.

 

[Hampster Gull]

So here's the menu for Target Field: http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ballpark/information/index.jsp?content=concessions

Some prices (assumptions: there is no sales tax to be added to these prices (but there might be, which would make things more expensive) and an f/x rate of £1=$1.30)...

Bottle of water - £3.84
Bottle of coke etc - £4.23
Basic beer - £5.76 / £6.53
Fish & chips - £8.46
Fries - £4.23
Slice of pizza - £4.61
Burger with fries - £9.61
Steak sandwich - £12.30
16" pizza - £23.07 - £27.69

I think [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION] was pissed up when he thought it was cheap compared to the Amex...

I would happily pay those prices if it meant a nominal waiting time, someone who understood their food offering, someone who was courteous and quick and ultimately meant i had more time to do something else like talk to friends / family etc

 

[Gwylan]

So here's the menu for Target Field: http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ballpark/information/index.jsp?content=concessions

Some prices (assumptions: there is no sales tax to be added to these prices (but there might be, which would make things more expensive) and an f/x rate of £1=$1.30)...
.

Food sales tax in Minnesota is 6.875% but there's additional liquor tax on the beer, there's also an additional tax if it's in downtown Minneapolis. Complicated business working out tax in MN

 

[Thunder Bolt]

They get things wrong, they find it difficult to retain and train staff, there are queues but not everywhere all the time, they are constrained by the law, they run out of stuff, the range of drink and food is limited but Harveys/Piglets is unusual for comparable clubs, the pricing is not cheap but not that different to comparable football, cinema, sporting events and they've inexplicably removed the Harvey's bar from the WSU and this week had a comedy moment where the poor chap couldn't pour a pint of Fosters for most of half time.

but ... "we just go with the lowest bid, lowest common denominator generic caterer, who cuts corners and kills the potential revenue stone dead. " is not quite what is on offer is it...

When the original catering company at the Amex was sacked off, an emergency team took over (Lindley?) who were very good. Then Sodexo came in the following season and it's gone downhill from there. I have to agree, I think it's the lowest bid, lowest commone denominator generic caterer.