Concessions 2006

[sanddrag]

How were they? How much did they charge?

At AZ, there were no concessions whatsoever and a single vending machine that was nearly sold out on everything by Friday lunchtime.

At SoCal, they charged like $5.50 for nachos and $8 for a cheeseburger.

If you ask me, FIRST should do this: Approach the arena and say "how much did you make off of us last year; we'll pay you that much this year to go away" and then set up their own cheaper concessions to make back some of that cost. I know money is tight for FIRST, but maybe they just need to find somebody to outright sponsor the food.

[Libby Ritchie]

Pittsburgh Regional: The planning committee gave out large bags of variety chips to each team to snack on, which I thought was neat. We had a great selection of food at the arena. We had a choice of Italian, Burger King, a coffee shop, a sub place, and a sandwich shop. It was good prices and great food. No complaints.

Boilermaker Regional: They had their own concession stands. The prices were very resonable and the choices were pretty good. No complaints here, either.

[dubious elise]

Agreed about Boilermaker. The Wisconsin Regional Planning Committee worked very hard to keep the prices down for teams in attendance. While the initial quotes from the arena were ludicrous, the final prices during the competition were only slightly more than those at Boilermaker (ie: $4 for a super hot dog, $3 for a huge soda, $3 for a large slice of pizza, etc). The concessions stands were each slightly different, but there were multiple stands open on both levels of the arena.

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

At AZ, there were no concessions whatsoever and a single vending machine that was nearly sold out on everything by Friday lunchtime.

If I remember correctly, there were some concessions on the upper story way in the back, but they were somewhere along the lines of $10 to $15 for a burger and drink.

At Sacramento there was a smoothie shop that wasn't too highly priced, and there were several vending machines as well.

[George A.]

This all depends on the venue you're at...at NJ which is held at a sports arena, the concessions are expensive, just as they are at all arenas...however there are other competitions, (NYC, which is in a state park, Annapolis, which is on Naval base, Palmetto which is in USC) where the food is cheaper.

If you go to the arena's concession stand it's gonna kill your wallet...but if you go to a college's cafeteria, or places around the venue then you can save money.

In a lot of the venue's there's a clause in their contract which says that if FIRST wants to use their venue, then they have to use their concession suppliers...kind of unfair, but FIRST doesn't have much of a choice considering, there aren't that many places that can hold the amount of people that they have...so we unfortunately get the short end of the stick.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by M.O.R.T.

This all depends on the venue you're at...at NJ which is held at a sports arena, the concessions are expensive, just as they are at all arenas...however there are other competitions, (NYC, which is in a state park, Annapolis, which is on Naval base, Palmetto which is in USC) where the food is cheaper. .

I actually brought up the price of food in NJ in another thread about parking fees, and I think they coincide to make a certain amount of money off of us. The best thing is to go on your team's bus, or commute into the events for parking fees anyways.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...8&postcount=12
In NJ, parking was free and food was expensive ($6 for a hamburger is what I consider expensive - just a hamburger, no sides.)

In Annapolis, the food prices were more than reasonable. for 10 bucks I filled a full size plastic tray with food. Parking was not an issue for other reasons. (See below)

NYC (Last year) the food was reasonable, but was off cart vendors, or you could always walk a block to McDonald's, so that was never an issue.

Boston, the venue handled the food, and it was normal food prices, and parking was 10 bucks.. so.. you actually got "screwed" the most there, cause you had expensive food on top of Parking fees.

CT (UTC Regional) Same thing, 10 bucks for parking, and normal venue food prices.

In the regionals I went to, for overall food vs parking value, Annapolis was great, but parking was not an issue cause it wasn't really open to the public cause it's on a Naval Base, but food value was excellent. (See above)

NJ was definitely OK, I think, but the money did go by quick when you ordered a lot - re: Hamburger, large fries, large drink, desert (for one person only) could go for 20 bucks easily..



Of course, some events offer team discounts/bag lunches available, and even though they may seem hokey, they offer the best value.

[MikeJ675]

We just bring a grill and cook some dogs and burgers for lunch...

It's become a bit of a tradition for us at SVR.

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

How were they? How much did they charge?

At AZ, there were no concessions whatsoever and a single vending machine that was nearly sold out on everything by Friday lunchtime.

At SoCal, they charged like $5.50 for nachos and $8 for a cheeseburger.

I want to say I have a beef about food at the SoCal venue, but I'm told there wasn't any beef at SoCal, so I won't say it.

I like the AZ arrangement where you can pre-order lunches, so you know in advance what you're getting for your money. I think both the caterer and the consumers benefit. It has to be easier to make a profit when the caterer knows in advance what the customers want.

Food for SoCal was very confusing to me. First, there was a mistaken announcement to our team that there was no food available at The Forum, and we had to bring sack lunches. Well, we thought we got that misconception straightened out. But then when I got there, I was told there were no hamburgers on the menu. The next day, I read the menu more closely and noticed hamburgers WERE on the menu. But then someone told me that the menu on the wall was NOT the real menu; I had to read the printed menus posted on the cash registers, and there were no hamburgers on those menus. I didn't check out this last report, so I can't personally verify that it's true. If true, it amounts to making the mistaken announcement to our team valid: no food at The Forum!

Now, I believe that the concessions are part of the profitability of the venue, and that it is a good idea to patronize them whenever feasible. But what the concessionaire at the Forum seems not to realize is that thousands of teenagers and adults need meals (hamburgers and pizza) not snacks (hot dogs and nachos) when they're at the venue all day for three days in a row. So this year, for the first time ever, I decided not to patronize the concession at the SoCal regional, because I'm tired of compromising my health and well-being for the sake of someone else's profits.

I also foresee a time when venues will not be able to ban outside food and sell only junk food. This is because the FDA, public schools, and other entities are cracking down on Americans' bad eating habits. With all the news about Americans being overweight, one would think that these places will soon realize they have got to improve their menus.

[ahecht]

Just like at any other sporting event, in-venue food is going to be expensive. However, almost all the venues have somewhere nearby that is reasonably priced. In Los Angeles, there is the Mercado la Paloma a couple of blocks away, or the dozens of more traditional fast food places located along Figueroa. In Manchester there are plenty of places within a couple of plocs of the arena. At UCF, we found a place nearby called Lazy Moon pizza which sells a 36" pizza (yes, that's three feet across, and easily feeds 8 people) for $20.

In any case, one or two people can pick up food for everyone, you can eat just outside the arena, and you can avoid paying the high prices.

[Rombus]

Buckeye Regional: I spent about 9 bucks on a personal pan pizzahut pizza and a small coke. The pizza was greasy, burnt on the top, doughy on the bottom. Tasted great after not eating all day till 7pm. The Cleveland Convo center is very bad about outside food and drink too, they got mad at a teammate for taking a cup of coke he bought at the concession stand, walked outside to talk to someone who was getting some fresh air, (Right outside the door) And then attempted to walk back in.

Ill admit, i hate being sneaky about food and drink, but i was smuggling about 5 bottles of water in each day to the buckeye regional in my backpack, im not about to spend 4 bucks on a bottle of water when i know ill be drinking 4 or 5 each day.

[Billfred]

The Colonial Center, home to Palmetto, has tolerable venue food. Plan on about $7-8 for a meal...but at least that meal will be pretty good.

If, however, you can hoof it up the hill a bit to Wendy's, Beezer's, Subway, or the Russell House, you can probably shave a few bucks off the tab.

[GlitterRave113]

As mentioned above, buying food at the Nj Regionals was extremly rough on our wallets! Most of us just walked about fifteen minutes to the local McDonalds. It was a tad cold, but we got to eat way cheaper! I think from now on our team is either going to buy food ahead of time and bring it with us or find a cheaper place to eat and shuttle everone there.

[rachakate]

I can't say that I know what was charged for consessions at FLR, but I think it was reasonable. I do know that they offered preordered lunches for $6.75 a person that included a large sandwich (daily choice of 3 different types, one veggie) can of soda, piece of fruit and a bag of chips.

[sanddrag]

Another thing to consider is the surrounding cities in which a few of these regionals are held. For Arizona and SoCal, I wouldn't want my students walking around out there looking for a place to eat.

[qhsscience]

I've been to my share of events over the past 11 years, and I've seen my share of ridiculously priced AND lousy food. I understand the whole "contract with the venue" problem, so I want to be positive here. I thought this year that the food at both the UTC and the Boston regional was both reasonably priced AND reasonably good (for EVENT food!) Cheeseburgers/Cheddar burgers were around 4.50 and drinks were around 2.50. I found the burgers to be reasonable in taste and size and didn't feel like I had to spend $20 to get a decent lunch. I can't say anything about other venues, but I think that UTC and Boston did the best they could in terms of quality and value...now if we can just get the concession stand workers in Boston to not pour water on the hot range next year , we'll be just fine