Bringing Food into Competition Venues

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Noah Melamed

Every Venue is different but from the few I have worked in I'd like to give my perspective. Concessions income for an event is only second to ticket sales. In all the cases I experience two people got "points" or a percentage from concessions. Depending on the agreement the stadium would take a cut and the Concessions stand would get what was estimated to simply keep the stand running(pay wages, restock food, clean equipment, etc.). The Stands only ever turned a marginal profit and it was the Venue that walked away with the big bucks.


With an Event like FIRST Venues may be taking a hit. There are no ticket sales and It is seemingly apparent from this thread that FIRSTers aren't buying the burgers.

My solution would be to approach the venue to see if they have a contract with and outside caterer, for Weddings, Box Seats, etc. The company they contract to do this could be then used to prepare inexpensive generic food(Sandwiches and the like). The Venue would still get a cut, meet its contractual obligation to provide the food and we'd all eat better(and hopefully cheaper) for it.

As a member of the Southern California Regional Committee, I can assure you that the venues are not "taking a hit". We pay them rent for the time we are there. Some venues, like those at a University, may "donate" the time or give us a reduced rate, but they decide what they can afford and FIRST pays it.

The concession question is more difficult. Generally the concessions are locked in by contract with the venue. They are set up to deliver a limited number of food items. Expanding their menu just for us would be difficult.

Some venues might have a separate contract for catering. However these can also be difficult to work with. Here in LA I know we tried to work with the designated caterer to set up pre-paid lunches and they basically no-bid the contract. But since they had an exclusive contract with the venue, we couldn't give the business to anybody else either.

Event food is one of the hardest issues to work, not due to any inherent difficulty, but because of the maze of conflicting interests associated with it. Generally we tell teams that if you don't like what is there, bring your own and eat it in the parking lot. We also provide information on local restaurants in our Visitor Guide. For your after hours dinning pleasure of course