I hope this will be a new trend!

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/22212592/atlanta-falcons-drop-prices-make-more-money-mercedes-benz-stadium-concessions

Quote:

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Sports fans who have long criticized their favorite teams for the prices they charge at the stadium might finally get their wish of cheaper concessions.

That's what could happen if others follow the lead of Atlanta Falcons and United owner Arthur Blank, whose group revealed Thursday that, despite lowering their food and beverage prices to the lowest in all of major professional American sports, fans actually spent more.

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."There's a huge value in delighting your fan base, to make them as happy as they could possibly be," Cannon said. "We started with one of the biggest pain points and it paid off."

To coincide with opening Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the AMB Group announced their "Fan First Menu Pricing." Unlimited Coca-Cola would cost $2, so too would a bottle of water, popcorn, a hot dog and a pretzel. For $3 each, fans could get waffle fries, a slice of pizza, or nachos with cheese. Those prices included tax. No change would help serve to speed the ease of transactions.

The new stadium also had 65 percent more points of sale and 1,264 more beer taps than the Georgia Dome did as well as self-serve soda machines.
Cannon said Thursday that the Falcons recently finished No. 1 among all NFL teams, in an internal survey conducted by the league, in food quality, price to value ratio, speed of service and variety.

Not only did the team make more money by lowering the prices, but the move also led to a domino effect for the entire game-day experience.

Because fans weren't deterred by the concession prices, Cannon said that, on average, 6,000 more fans walked through the gates two hours before the game, which not only meant more time to sell food and drink, but also helped to ease wait times at the games to the goal of no more than five minutes.
A happier fan experience will lead to sustained ticket sales, Cannon reasons, leading to sponsors more interested in having a presence at the stadium.

Since AMB announced the fan-first pricing in May 2016, the reaction by the rest of the sports world has, for the most part, has been to ignore it. Few teams have sought to replicate the model, partly because it was believed that the group in Atlanta would be leaving money on the table.
"Arthur wants other teams to do this," Cannon said. "We are an open playbook. We want to show other teams how this is done."

In order for Blank to allow him the flexibility of controlling the pricing, he has a more loose relationship with his concessionaire than what is typically found in sports. AMB runs the entire operation and with Levy being the group's business partner.

Despite not being open for many of the stadium's major events, including seven of the eight regular-season Falcons home games, the stadium's Chick-fil-A stand sold the third-most items of any stand in the structure.
Merchandise sales were also up 88 percent.

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very impressive- the Master's model. Hope Baylor folks are taking note. There are many barriers to good attendance at basketball games and I think concessions is one of them.

I can have an awesome buffet dinner at the Baylor club before the game and be out the door for $22 but if you take 3 guests with you to the game and want 4 waters that cost less than $0.17 each at the grocery store, you have to pay $4 each? Seems nuts unless you are selling your arena out. Everything should be evaluated to try and entice for fans and families to come to the game. Quality food options at market or below market prices should definitely be under consideration.

Sounds like some folks in the Atlanta area understand customer goodwill and economics pretty well.

3ptSpecialist said:

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very impressive- the Master's model. Hope Baylor folks are taking note. There are many barriers to good attendance at basketball games and I think concessions is one of them.

I can have an awesome buffet dinner at the Baylor club before the game and be out the door for $22 but if you take 3 guests with you to the game and want 4 waters that cost less than $0.17 each at the grocery store, you have to pay $4 each? Seems nuts unless you are selling your arena out. Everything should be evaluated to try and entice for fans and families to come to the game. Quality food options at market or below market prices should definitely be under consideration.

Sounds like some folks in the Atlanta area understand customer goodwill and economics pretty well.

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To me, it's a great idea and model.

There is a ceiling that people will pay before they start looking for alternatives, such as the Baylor Club.

Given that, in my opinion, the moment concessions were handed over to Savor they took a steep dive in basically every category. Service, pricing, quality, and logistics. While they are in charge, I'm not sure how much improvement is possible.

Even going back to the way it was would be an improvement. If Baylor did that, then they could implement this model and it would do some good.

redfish961 said:

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3ptSpecialist said:

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very impressive- the Master's model. Hope Baylor folks are taking note. There are many barriers to good attendance at basketball games and I think concessions is one of them.

I can have an awesome buffet dinner at the Baylor club before the game and be out the door for $22 but if you take 3 guests with you to the game and want 4 waters that cost less than $0.17 each at the grocery store, you have to pay $4 each? Seems nuts unless you are selling your arena out. Everything should be evaluated to try and entice for fans and families to come to the game. Quality food options at market or below market prices should definitely be under consideration.

Sounds like some folks in the Atlanta area understand customer goodwill and economics pretty well.

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To me, it's a great idea and model.

There is a ceiling that people will pay before they start looking for alternatives, such as the Baylor Club.

Given that, in my opinion, the moment concessions were handed over to Savor they took a steep dive in basically every category. Service, pricing, quality, and logistics. While they are in charge, I'm not sure how much improvement is possible.

Even going back to the way it was would be an improvement. If Baylor did that, then they could implement this model and it would do some good.

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No doubt.

6 dollar Dr. Peppers and 6 dollar cold hamburgers are more than a rip off and they make collegiate sporting events cost prohibitive for many families.

I always thought this would work, even at things like movie theaters. A lot of times I refuse to buy overpriced crap out of principle more than lack of funds.

stillwaiting said:

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Interesting article, biggest takeaway for me though:

"Despite not being open for many of the stadium's major events, including seven of the eight regular-season Falcons home games, the stadium's Chick-fil-A stand sold the third-most items of any stand in the structure."

A Chick-fila-a franchise is a license to print money.

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I love Chick-fil-A but I can't even go to the one on campus at Georgia Tech without a 30 minute+ wait. People in Atlanta are crazy for it.

Pricing elasticity = pretty easy to figure out. Even if you didn't take Dr Kelly's econometrics class, it's pretty damn simple: pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered, so price it sell-out, not merely to sell.

Take a fountain drink: with overhead, cost, etc all figured in, it costs about 15 cents for a drink. Heck, call it 25 cents. The rest = pure profit. Sell the sucker for $2 or sell an unlimited refill cup for $5 and call it a day. Fan = happy and probably buys more of your stuff, you = profitable.

It ain't rocket science, but I entertainment venues (movies, sports, concerts, etc) believe that their captured audience will simply show-up and pay-up at whatever cost. A lot of folks do, but I'm willing to bet that most fans have one drink but not two or three or have their kids share popcorn instead of buying two. There sure were a lot of empty NFL seats and college seats across the nation this year-- I bet it was felt at concessions, too

snarebear55 said:

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stillwaiting said:

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Interesting article, biggest takeaway for me though:

"Despite not being open for many of the stadium's major events, including seven of the eight regular-season Falcons home games, the stadium's Chick-fil-A stand sold the third-most items of any stand in the structure."

A Chick-fila-a franchise is a license to print money.

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I love Chick-fil-A but I can't even go to the one on campus at Georgia Tech without a 30 minute+ wait. People in Atlanta are crazy for it.

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Home city advantage

At the last second, I ended up with tickets to the KSU/BU MBB game. I hadn't eaten yet so, as I was rushing in, I grabbed a couple Chick Fil-a sandwiches and a couple of water's. $22 i think it was. I didn't make that mistake for last night's WBB game.

I can't remember the last time I spent money on concessions at a game. I refuse to pay the high prices for mediocre to bad food.

I just remembered that I bought food at Fenway Park 3 years ago. But that's it out of over a dozen events or more.

Our mellinial son and his spouse (both BU grads) attend the games with us. The only food they will touch in the stadium is Chic-fil-a or some turkey sandwich (sans bread) from a BBQ stand. Everything else is icky and unhealthy. Price is no object. Healthy is key.

I'm kind of with them. It's hotter than hell most games. Something heavy on the stomach plus heat equals barf or at least discomfort.

I wonder if they had a rule that nothing could cost $2.83























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