Ballpark concessionaires pitch variegated menus, seek sales wins in wake of strike-stunted seasons - baseball park food services - Segment Study

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack; baseball season is upon us once again.

While you're at it, you might want to throw in a Caesar salad, some stuffed jalapenos and a teriyaki kebab or two.

It looks like there's a long season ahead - certainly the longest one Major League Baseball will have seen in three years - and that fact has ballpark concessionaires eager to throw out the first ball.

"While I would not exactly call it a return to the [fan] euphoria of 1994; we are optimistic that we will have a good year," says Michael Thompson, president of Buffalo, N.Y.-based Sportservice. "Based on what we have seen during spring training, it looks like fans are ready to come back to the ballparks in strong numbers.

Whatever the attendance, revenues are bound to be stronger than in the last two seasons, when concessionaires took a financial hit from a protracted players' strike that began in August 1994 and did not end until April 25, 1995.

"We really took our lumps," says Charles Gillespie, president of Aramark's Philadelphia-based Leisure Services division. "There's really nothing we can do to make up that revenue, so we've just bitten the bullet. We hope 1996 attendance will bring us back to our prestrike revenues."

Of course, concessionaires are not sitting passively waiting for fans to order their hot dogs and beer. Nearly every stadium will introduce at least one new menu item for 1996, continuing a menu-expansion trend that really has taken off during the last five years.

It no longer is an exaggeration to say that there is something for everyone who attends a baseball game. Although hot dogs, soda, beer and peanuts still make up the bulk of foodservice sales, fans who haven't been to a ballpark in the 1990s would be amazed at what is available at concession stands.

"I would say that 20 percent to 22 percent of our menu items are alternatives that really weren't there a few years ago," says Sportservice's Thompson. "What these will be depends on where in the country the stadium is located."

Following is a sample of menu items from some of the country's best-known parks:

* Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles: sushi, pan pizzas, vegetarian burritos, lentil chili, baked potatoes and a self-serve salad bar.

* The Ballpark at Arlington, Texas: barbecue brisket, gourmet pretzels, chicken-fried steak sandwiches, stuffed jalapenos and chicken fajitas.

* Coors Field, Denver:: Rocky, Mountain oysters, chef's salads, buffalo burgers, calzones and hand-carved deli sandwiches.

* Jacobs Field, Cleveland: Teriyaki kebabs, Caesar salad, grilled pork loin sandwiches and black pepper Polish sausage.

* Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.: fat-free hot dogs and smoked turkey sandwiches, 44-ounce sodas and Italian sausage burgers topped with grilled onions, peppers and marinara sauce.

* Candlestick Park, now known officially as 3-Com Park, San Francisco: soups - which are sold by vendors in the stands - and burritos.

In some stadiums, such as Candlestick Park, Yankee Stadium and Comiskey Park, fans who are willing to pay more for premium seats can dine without leaving their seats. In designated sections of these and other parks, waitservice is available. Concession personnel, often using hand-held computer terminals, will take orders in the stands and deliver food to diners within 30 minutes.

Kids' areas have grown in popularity. In such ballparks as Busch Stadium, Comiskey Park and Camden Yards, children can belly up to a kid-sized bar, which offers hot dogs, french fries, peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, chicken tenders and other finger foods.

Most ballparks now have luxury suites or skyboxes for lease to corporations and the most affluent fans. Inside those accommodations fans may have their game catered or order whatever they desire simply by using the arena's waitservice.

In many stadiums fans can enjoy pregame or postgame meals in restaurants located inside the ballparks. For example, TGI Friday's Inc. operates the Front Row restaurant at The Ballpark in Arlington. At Coors Field Aramark runs Rounders At The Sandlot, a sportsthemed microbrewery and restaurant.

The Levy Organization operates a similar enterprise, called The Terrace Club, at Jacobs Field. The restaurant is open to the public for lunch on days the Cleveland Indians are on the road.

No other type of sports venue is likely to have more variety of foodservice options than a baseball stadium. The main reason for that, say concessionaires, is that baseball is unlike any other sport.

"First of all, baseball is a more family-oriented sport, primarily because of ticket prices," says Larry Hatch, president of Volume Services, based in Spartanburg, S.C. "Second, there is a more relaxed atmosphere at a baseball game. There are longer stretches of time in which to serve customers, compared with other sports where the action is almost continuous and our sales window is [limited] primarily to during intermission or halftime."

"Baseball fans tend to be grazers," Sportservice's Thompson adds. "There is less urgency to see every play, and fans tend to wander more than in other sports."

Finally, notes Aramark's Gillespie, the length of the season dictates a greater number of food offerings.

"Baseball's 81-home-game season is twice as long as those of basketball or hockey, and 10 times as long as football's," Gillespie explains. "Season-ticket holders who come to every game, or even to 50 or 60 games, are not going to want the same food every day."

Of course, food is not the only thing about ballpark concessions that is changing. Operators are becoming more cost-conscious and technologically savvy in their approach to stadium operations.

"The baseball strike was a huge wake-up call for us," Thompson admits. "When we started running 70-to 80- percent of what we projected, we realized we had to operate more smartly. As a result, we are going into 1996 extremely lean."

Among the steps Sportservice implemented are compressed preseason foodservice training - reduced to two weeks instead of four; use of history-based computer models to project staff needs and payrolls from game to game; and better utilization of "dark time," when the team is on a long road trip, by laying off employees and bringing them back a couple of days before the team returns.

"General managers have made a little science out of our business," says John Dee, president of Service America Corp. Stamford, Conn.-based Service America operates concessions at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

"If the ballclub tells them what the expected crows will be for a game," Dee adds, "they can predict what sales will be, determine how many and which stands should be open and decide how many vendors they need in the stands."

And listening to customers has become more important than ever before. Volume Services took the lead in that area in 1991 by setting up a toll-free number for customer comments. Hatch says the contract company receives about 50 such calls a year, with comments split evenly between complaints or suggestions and requests.

"The San Francisco Giants like the idea so much they have piggybacked with us on the number, so that fans at Candlestick Park can use one number to get any information they need or voice any opinion on the ballpark, ticket sales or concessions," Hatch says.

No matter how much variety concessionaires offer, how well they manage costs or how closely they listen to customers, they must contend with one sales-volume factor over which they have no control: how well the home team does. A World Series season for a ball club is a boon for a contractor, while a cellar-dweller team often will pull concessions revenue down with it.

In 1996, however, that won't matter as much to concessionaires. An uninterrupted season of baseball likely will make all ballpark concessionaires revenue winners.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
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