Falcons drop food prices and make more money


Someone should send this article to the AD. Lower concessions will help student attendance a bit, and I would assume attendance overall. Maybe not by much, but some.
 

Thanks to the Falcons for doing this and showing that teams don't need to stick it to the customers. You would think if the UofM lowered ticket prices, they would make much of it up in food and beer sales by having more seats full.
 

The article is not clear on whether the 16% increase was per attendee or overall. It’s a new stadium so I would guess interest and attendance were up this year but the article didn’t say. Journalism? WTF? What are The Facts?


Steve Cannon, CEO of the AMB Group, Blank's holding company, told ESPN that although food and beverage prices were 50 percent lower in its new Mercedes-Benz Stadium than the prices in the Georgia Dome the previous year, fans spent 16 percent more.
 

New stadium fits about 5,200 more per game or a 7% increase. I read it as taking in 16% more in concessions overall. Still a pretty good trade off.
 


Perhaps people showing up earlier to tour the new stadium get hungry and thirsty —> more concessions. I think there are enough MBAs around to determine if this strategy is more from buyer psychology or increased attendance and vagrancy.

I’d like to see if reducing season tix by 50% would lead to a 16% increase in overall ticket revenue. I honestly don’t know. Where are the resident economists?
 

The article is not clear on whether the 16% increase was per attendee or overall. It’s a new stadium so I would guess interest and attendance were up this year but the article didn’t say. Journalism? WTF? What are The Facts?


Steve Cannon, CEO of the AMB Group, Blank's holding company, told ESPN that although food and beverage prices were 50 percent lower in its new Mercedes-Benz Stadium than the prices in the Georgia Dome the previous year, fans spent 16 percent more.

Reads to me like 16% overall spend increase.
 

I would buy 4 instead of 2 Summits/Sagas at every game if they were $5 if that matters
 




The article is not clear on whether the 16% increase was per attendee or overall. It’s a new stadium so I would guess interest and attendance were up this year but the article didn’t say. Journalism? WTF? What are The Facts?


Steve Cannon, CEO of the AMB Group, Blank's holding company, told ESPN that although food and beverage prices were 50 percent lower in its new Mercedes-Benz Stadium than the prices in the Georgia Dome the previous year, fans spent 16 percent more.

Given the context of the sentence, I would say that it means fans spent 16% more on concessions overall. It's be nice if they released all the statistics they used though.
 

I know when I go to most sporting events (not just the Gophers), I go in figuring that concessions are ridiculously priced and that I should eat before I go. Only in a situation where I have a really tight schedule do I eat at the game.

Maybe more people decided to eat a meal at the game because prices were lower?
 

I know when I go to most sporting events (not just the Gophers), I go in figuring that concessions are ridiculously priced and that I should eat before I go. Only in a situation where I have a really tight schedule do I eat at the game.

Maybe more people decided to eat a meal at the game because prices were lower?

This is almost certainly the case.
 

More fans walked through the gates earlier ... at a brand new stadium.... not sure the food is all that is at play here.

Also it might be cheaper than the Georgia Dome but when I last saw their prices for the basics I didn't find it all that impressive.
 



I went to the Vikings/Falcons game a couple months ago and the food at their stadium was awesome and cheaper than in the sports bar down the street. It was an awesome experience. Looking forward to hitting the Vikes stadium next year for comparison.
 

More fans walked through the gates earlier ... at a brand new stadium.... not sure the food is all that is at play here.

Also it might be cheaper than the Georgia Dome but when I last saw their prices for the basics I didn't find it all that impressive.
Refillable pop for $2? Pretzel $2. Chicken tenders with fries $6? Those are great prices. 12 oz beer, $5 not too bad.

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Don't the Gophers and most teams bid out their food to the Aramark's of the world? Not sure the teams in most cases are setting the prices in the stadium. They have more POS and beer taps that cut down on the lines and make the experience more fan friendly, what a concept. 50% lower pricing!
 

I’ve always been of the mind that teams who struggle to fill their stadium should keep dropping prices in the cheap seats — to $0 if necessary — in order to build their fan base, improve the atmosphere for everyone, help those who can’t afford a ticket, and sell concessions, parking, and merch to those fans who otherwise would be empty chairs.

I’ve read this is how Mark Cuban has the Mavs still selling out at the bottom of a down cycle.
 

Refillable pop for $2? Pretzel $2. Chicken tenders with fries $6? Those are great prices. 12 oz beer, $5 not too bad.

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Pretty remarkable how expectations have been reset over the years.
 

The key is getting the booze and food cheap enough that the fans are in there 30 minutes to an hour before the game. As is all the tailgaters are going in at the last minute to drink the last few cheap beers and chips they brought from home. If beers were 5 bucks, I would go in early and soak up some atmosphere, but at 10 bucks, no way.
 

I don’t care about the price as much as I care about the terrible quality of food at Gopher games. It’s awful. Aramark sucks.


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Pretty remarkable how expectations have been reset over the years.

Yeah - there are a lot of sit-down restaurants that charge close to $3 for a pop these days. Might as well order a beer...
 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...oke-the-rules-of-stadium-food-and-it-paid-off

The ESPN article was a bit misleading-sales were up, profits were down. (emphasis added):


Falcons owner Arthur Blank had made a calculated bet that what the organization lost in markup, it would recoup in volume -- fans would come earlier, stay longer and buy enough food to make up the difference.


He was half-right. About 6,000 more fans per game entered the stadium earlier than they did in 2016, and in general, the venue sold as much food by the end of the first quarter of Falcons games as it did in full games in 2016. Fans also gave the Falcons the highest satisfaction rating in the NFL for food and beverages, up from No. 18 in 2016, and the highest rating for security satisfaction, in part the result of lines made shorter by all the early entries.

They also bought more food -- sales were up 53 percent -- and each fan spent, on average, 16 percent more on concessions. It wasn’t enough to offset the drop in prices, though. The team made less on concessions in 2017 than it did the year before, according Steve Cannon, chief executive officer of AMB Group, the company through which Blank owns the team.

“Sure, we could shake out a few more dollars of margin under the old model, but we believe that the direction we’ve taken, given all the other positive benefits, is the bigger revenue play, period,” Cannon said.
 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...oke-the-rules-of-stadium-food-and-it-paid-off

The ESPN article was a bit misleading-sales were up, profits were down. (emphasis added):


Falcons owner Arthur Blank had made a calculated bet that what the organization lost in markup, it would recoup in volume -- fans would come earlier, stay longer and buy enough food to make up the difference.


He was half-right. About 6,000 more fans per game entered the stadium earlier than they did in 2016, and in general, the venue sold as much food by the end of the first quarter of Falcons games as it did in full games in 2016. Fans also gave the Falcons the highest satisfaction rating in the NFL for food and beverages, up from No. 18 in 2016, and the highest rating for security satisfaction, in part the result of lines made shorter by all the early entries.

They also bought more food -- sales were up 53 percent -- and each fan spent, on average, 16 percent more on concessions. It wasn’t enough to offset the drop in prices, though. The team made less on concessions in 2017 than it did the year before, according Steve Cannon, chief executive officer of AMB Group, the company through which Blank owns the team.

“Sure, we could shake out a few more dollars of margin under the old model, but we believe that the direction we’ve taken, given all the other positive benefits, is the bigger revenue play, period,” Cannon said.

So, the crack squad at ESPN was misleading at best. I eagerly await their next CTE piece.
 

Would be interesting to know if they had cut prices by only 25% rather than 50% if it profit would have increased or decreased.
 

I know when I go to most sporting events (not just the Gophers), I go in figuring that concessions are ridiculously priced and that I should eat before I go. Only in a situation where I have a really tight schedule do I eat at the game.

Maybe more people decided to eat a meal at the game because prices were lower?

This is exactly what we do every game in town. Twins,gophers....
Hard to believe that more teams haven’t figured this out? Now I have even cut back going to games because ticket prices are getting out of control now also. I love going to games just have been out priced. But yet every stadium has empty seats except Vikings games. Gophers would rather have half the stadium half full then sell a reasonable priced ticket to a few sections. I took my 9 year daughter to her first twins game a number of years ago and was instantly hooked she never missed another twins game on TV even though they sucked. Point is most can’t afford to bring a family to the games. U want to create new fans for future years u get them hooked at a young age. Last year mid year gophers pretty ****ty I will try and get a tickets for decent prices for family I believe $55 dollars was cheapest ticket. Took me 2 seconds say nope out.
 

I’ve always been of the mind that teams who struggle to fill their stadium should keep dropping prices in the cheap seats — to $0 if necessary — in order to build their fan base, improve the atmosphere for everyone, help those who can’t afford a ticket, and sell concessions, parking, and merch to those fans who otherwise would be empty chairs.

I’ve read this is how Mark Cuban has the Mavs still selling out at the bottom of a down cycle.

Teams have tried. The problem is it doesn't work for long and causes issues long term.

- The guy who didn't come to the game for $10 isn't comming for $5 or $3. It's not just the price.

- If you set prices super low you impact the customer's percieved vlaue of the event. Fans who came for $5 will not as readily pay $20 even when the team is doing better. A few striggling baseball teams have found that out.


It's easy for fans like us who would love to go and pay less to say "charge less" but that's reallly not the barrier for most fans to get in and can backfire.

Let's face it you can get tickets for gopher games hyper cheap on stubhub.... those tickets aren't selling out either. Price isn't the issue when it comes to butts in seats.
 

Teams have tried. The problem is it doesn't work for long and causes issues long term.

- The guy who didn't come to the game for $10 isn't comming for $5 or $3. It's not just the price.

- If you set prices super low you impact the customer's percieved vlaue of the event. Fans who came for $5 will not as readily pay $20 even when the team is doing better. A few striggling baseball teams have found that out.


It's easy for fans like us who would love to go and pay less to say "charge less" but that's reallly not the barrier for most fans to get in and can backfire.

Let's face it you can get tickets for gopher games hyper cheap on stubhub.... those tickets aren't selling out either. Price isn't the issue when it comes to butts in seats.
A balance has to be struck though. Price out too many people and you lose your fan base, which can be difficult to rebuild. The only thing that kept me going to twins games for years were the super cheap tickets. Now I am a season ticket holder, also partly because they have affordable options.

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Reality is that at most stadiums the concessions are an afterthought; just another renvenue stream. There is almost no consideration to creating a great fan experience. As a result prices are not competitive with nearby restaurants, and the quality is awful. On top of that most stadiums just cut a deal with large distributors and vendors that take the majority of the cut and offer fans the most boring basic products (ie Lite served at most beer POS at TCF).

They took a different approach in Atlanta and fans love it. In addition to actually growing revenue, they have increased demand for their product in a very competitive market.
 

A balance has to be struck though. Price out too many people and you lose your fan base, which can be difficult to rebuild. The only thing that kept me going to twins games for years were the super cheap tickets. Now I am a season ticket holder, also partly because they have affordable options.

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If the Gophers lost a fanbase over the last 60 years it was about the Ws and Ls.
 

If the Gophers lost a fanbase over the last 60 years it was about the Ws and Ls.

I'm talking about the more recent years when we've been respectable. Yes, winning is a factor, but the whole experience (including ticket and concession prices) play a large role.

The Twins were still drawing OK (relative to how bad they were) numbers even when they were losing 100 games. I think it's partly because Target Field is still a great stadium and ticket prices are reasonable.

I think if they Gophers lowered season ticket prices they'd get some people back. Lowering concession prices wouldn't hurt either. I don't buy the idea that people that really want to go are willing to pay any price for a ticket + concessions. I love the Wild and would like to go to more games, but I go to maybe 1 a year just because it's too expensive.
 




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