THE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS HOW FOOD & BEVERAGE OPERATIONS ARE SHIFTING AS SPORT & ENTERTAINMENT ENTERS THE FOOD CULTURE ERA 2026

CREDITS Publisher LEADERS

Editorial John Portch James Emmett

Sponsorship Simon Thomlinson Stephan Pavlovic

Photography Fulham Pier Eastlands Venue Services Getty Images Jeffrey Phelps via Getty Images Peter Fox/Getty Images Louiie Victa/Las Vegas Eater Manchester World AOL/Kelly McCarthy madmeatgenius.com Reddit r/FoodPorn Instagram @footyscran Instagram @sykeshousefarm allegiantstadium.com lvsportsbiz.com oracle.com sykeshousefarm.co.uk YouTube/MLB YouTube/Stupak Las Vegas

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HOW TO PUT YOURSELF ON SPORT’S NEW FOOD CULTURE MAP EIGHT LESSONS FROM ICONIC PROPERTIES

Photo by AOL/Kelly McCarthy.

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Terminology affects mindset; and mindset influences approach. The biggest sports rights holders no longer think simply about concessions, but about their place in a wider food culture. Food and drink is a revenue opportunity, but also a chance to make a lasting impression; to offer an elevated fan experience; and to add more ammunition to the overall marketing arsenal. Major League Baseball is one of the smartest operators in the space. Ballparks across the league aim to outdo each other with ever more weird and wonderful food offerings and have become known almost as much for their signature dishes as the stars that grace their fields.

Ben Ladkin, MD of MLB Europe, explains that food is one of the four “cultural pillars” – alongside music, fashion and film – that the league has a strategic plan for. “We see food as one of a number of culture verticals where baseball is really relevant that we look to when we’re thinking about expanding our

audiences,” he says.

And while social accounts like Footy Scran have played their part in digitally democratising food culture in sport, and raising customer expectations in the process, the evolution of F&B offerings in sport has been in inevitable. As sport is increasingly seen as an entertainment product, the concept of fan as customer is more prevalent.

For Paul Caine, President of global sports experiences and hospitality provider On Location, the industry has entered a new era. “We are 100 percent in a different age,” he says. “Stadium designs now focus on maximising seat value. And to do that they have to do more to make it feel special. So they’re creating more suites and hospitality centres to the point where some venues almost feel like they’re all hospitality. The new US Open courts and the main stadium is going to be basically almost all hospitality. And you’re seeing that trend across the world.”

1. THINK ‘FOOD CULTURE’, NOT F&B

Social accounts such as Footy Scran illustrate how food culture in sport is becoming increasingly democratised. Photo by Instagram @footyscran.

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The Sky Deck at Fulham Pier offers supporters an unparalleled experience. Photo by Fulham Pier.

2. MEET DIFFERENT BUDGETS AND EXPECTATIONS

Customer budgets and expectations differ; if you can provide multiple offerings to meet multiple customer profiles, you stand a better chance of maximising revenue and making a positive impact with as many people as possible. When Premier League side Fulham were redeveloping their south stand, updating the hospitality offering to meet modern standards – for both match-going and non-matchday audiences – was paramount.

Sarah Beattie, CMO at Fulham, explains that on matchdays, Fulham’s Riverside Stand now has 2,300 hospitality covers (up from 600 before the redevelopment). Those are spread out across eight

distinct offerings. “It’s everything from entry level plus hospitality, which is a slight bump up from our GA ticket pricing, right through to a five-course Michelin-styled sit-down tasting menu paired with wines, cocktails and everything else,” Beattie says.

“It’s about curating those experiences to the different kind of audience opportunities. So some of our spaces are sports bar vibes, stages, legends, the food and beverage that leans into that and others lean into more of a fine dining or members club-style experience. But the opportunity is there to cater to a hardcore fan or an international visitor or local resident or school and community offering.”

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3. LEAN INTO YOUR LOCATION

The crab mac & cheese hot dog is popular at Oriole Park in Baltimore. Photo by reddit @r/FoodPorn.

Whether it’s the crab mac & cheese hot dog at Oriole Park in Baltimore, the Hawaiian-inspired spam musubi and pork sliders at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, or the arepas and Cuban sandwiches at LoanDepotPark in Miami, Major League baseball’s F&B offering is as varied as its ballparks.

“Every ballpark has a great range of food,” says Ben Ladkin, “but we also have options where it’s a complete speciality that ties in nicely to the cities as well.”

It all adds to the fan experience, which is critical at every level. “We treat every guest experience as an individual event,” says Paul Caine, who wants that experience to be a “delight, no matter how much they’re paying.”

Food choices are important. “There’s three things we look for. One is, of course, procurement. Quality providers. We look for locally sourced ingredients because it’s usually high quality but it’s also important for the area we’re thinking about.

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“WE WANT THEM TO REMEMBER WHAT’S ON THE FIELD AND WE WANT THEM TO REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM WHILE THEY WERE THERE EXPERIENCING IT.”

The second thing is that we want to make sure it’s prepared in a way that’s fresh, that it’s at the level of quality where it feels individually prepared, whether it was or wasn’t.”

Freshness is fundamental because, going back to MLB, if you’re ordering the clam chowder at Oracle Park in San Francisco you can be sure it was sourced from the Bay Area. You probably wouldn’t want the same dish at the Kauffman Stadium in

Kansas City, which is 677 miles from the nearest coastline, but you may want try the burnt ends (a type of brisket unique to the region) instead.

The uniqueness of these dishes brings us to Caine’s third point. “We want to make sure it’s memorable,” he adds. “We want them to remember what’s on the field and we want them to remember what happened to them while they were there experiencing it.”

The burnt ends are a must-have for meat lovers at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium. Photo by madmeatgenius.com.

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4. SIMPLICITY RULES

Simplicity can be sophisticated. Elaboration can be over-complicated. Patrons go wild for the pimento cheese pimento sandwiches at the Masters; you can’t go to Wimbledon without having a Pimms to wash down your strawberries and cream; and the US Open has unlocked a new level of internet engagement with the striking colours of its Honey Deuce Cocktail. But raising the level of F&B offering doesn’t need to mean more ingredients, more preparation, more engineering.

“When we started with On Location and we were trying to elevate the experience, we started making complicated food choices thinking that’s what guests wanted,” recalls Caine. ‘So we would have a prime rib on or we'd have a specific fish quality and what we started hearing was ‘even though I’m paying $20,000, $25,000, $30,000, I'd really like the hamburger, those sliders’. Simple food done well. So that really changed our thinking right away. We could use simple food done well and create more snackable yet sustainable food that allows people to enjoy an event without having to sit down with a knife and fork.”

As Paul Caine says, fans want ‘simple food done well’. Photo by Eastlands Venue Services.

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Chef Gordon Ramsey with actor Cynthia Erivo at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix. Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images.

Atmosphere by design, as Beattie puts it, is critical in hospitality spaces.

“We want people to feel like there’s something that makes sense to them,” says Paul Caine of the experience of entering a hospitality space. “We really put an eye towards presentation and build entities that are germane to the locations of the sport.”

The recent Las Vegas Grand Prix was a case in point. Hospitality spaces included Gordon Ramsey at F1 Garage and the Papi Steak Garage.

“Everyone took Vegas as a bit of a joke in the food scene ten years ago,” Ramsey told Las Vegas Weekly. “But ask any chef in the world anywhere where they want to show off and be given a platform, nine times out of ten it’ll be Vegas.”

For $28,000, guests could enjoy an unobstructed view of the pit lane as well as an all-inclusive beverage and food menu curated by the famous chef.

At the Papi Steak Garage, guests (limited to just 75 people, each paying $30,000) could order a $1,000 55-ounce tomahawk steak in a bejewelled briefcase (branded a ‘beef case’) which arrived to the table accompanied by loud music and a laser show.

“Vegas is known for its hospitality and really trying to go above and beyond everybody else in town,” Evan Pollitt, the General Manager of Papi Steak Las Vegas, told Las Vegas Weekly. “The creativity of the space and the execution of the space is what is going to have to set you apart.”

At Fulham Pier, diners are currently entertained and inspired by an art installation featuring the work of British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori.

The project, titled 100 Found Objects, was unveiled in June 2025 and celebrates the history and heritage of the Fulham community.

Ilori drew inspiration from the practice of mudlarking (searching of the Thames foreshore for lost historical items). He incorporated fragments such as broken jugs, Delftware plates, and clay pipes into his work. The installation also features lenticular panels that shift and move with the viewer’s perspective.

“Yinka’s work speaks to the soul of Fulham – its layered history, its vibrant communities, and its constant evolution,” said Glen Sutton, the Director of Fulham Pier. “This commission reflects what Fulham Pier is all about: bringing people together through experiences, culture and a meaningful shared space.”

5. PRESENTATION IS KEY

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Major League Baseball London Series demonstrated the league’s ability to use food culture to attract new audiences. Regular season games were taken to the London Stadium in the east of the city in 2019, 2023 and 2024; there are hopes for future series too.

The UK is not a traditional baseball hotbed but the league’s YouTube Home Plates series with British food influencer Willy Hughes proved to be a hit. Throughout the annual series, Hughes, who has his own channel titled What Willy Cooks, visited the city of the nominal home teams and tried local specialities, which he considered for inclusion on the menu at the London Stadium.

“It’s a very authentic link for MLB – and I know everyone apologises when they say ‘authentic’ – but it’s something really unique,” says Ladkin, referring to food as one of the league’s most important tools in expanding its audience.

In 2024, ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies games with the New York Mets, Hughes visited Philadelphia and inspired some gentle controversy regarding the best Philly cheesesteak. Ladkin adds: “You film that, you film what’s in the ballpark, and you show this food influencer having an amazing time watching baseball.”

The Home Plates series has been a showcase of what Ladkin affectionately calls “ridiculous burgers, amazing food stuffs that are very filmable, very Instagrammable.”

Closer to home in the US, Corona leans into its status as the official ‘cerveza’ of Major League baseball to encourage the idea of Opening Day as a national holiday; a time of relaxation and celebration.

In 2024, Corona encouraged fans to tag their boss on Instagram via @CoronaUSA to declare they’re taking Opening Day off. This entered them into a sweepstakes for prizes including a free one-year MLB.TV subscription and tickets to select home openers. They also produced a humorous video of MLB stars Nick Castellanos and Fernando Tatís Jr encouraging people to ask their boss for the day off.

“The idea came from just being baseball fans ourselves, and the frustration of missing Opening Day, year after year, because we’re busy working,” said Ricky Johanet and Jordan Sparrow, the Creative Directors at MullenLowe Los Angeles, the organisation behind the campaign. “So we thought it would be fun to have people openly admit they need the day off to watch baseball, which felt very much in line with the ‘fine life’ mentality that Corona wants people to embrace.”

Willy Hughes’ Home Plate Series has been a hit on YouTube. Photo by YouTube/MLB.

6. PUSH OUTSIDE YOUR LANE FOR COLLABORATIONS

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A bartender prepares drinks at Fulham Pier. Photo by Fulham Pier.

A view of the Fulham Pier development (including the Riverside Stand) from across the Thames. Photo by Fulham Pier.

Fulham obtained planning permission for their Riverside Stand at Craven Cottage in 2012 and it was important from the outset that it had to deliver something more than just 5,000 extra seats on a match day.

The question, as Sarah Beattie explains, was “how do we create something of a civic institute for the Fulham community and how do we create the opportunity to drive revenue all year round from something that might only be used 19 or 22 times a season?”

The Riverside Stand has proven to be a matchday hit. All its hospitality spaces are open three hours before a match and one hour post-match. Additionally, The Dugout and Sky Deck keep their spaces open for people to stay longer for DJs, live music or other sports screenings.

It is common for Premier League clubs to use special drinks offers or discounts to entice match-going supporters to arrive early or remain in the stadium concourse post-match. At Brighton & Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium, for example, the club serves a different guest ale for each home match, typically sourced from the region of the visiting club. It adds to the occasion and injects a sense of novelty.

For their part, Fulham’s range of enticements is unparalleled. When the building is flipped back into Fulham Pier mode at the full-time whistle, supporters, locals and other visitors alike can mingle in the food court, where options include Taco’s El Rey, Local Greens (salad bowls) and Slice & Dice (New

York and Las Vegas-style pizza by the slice). For those seeking a premium experience, there is the Brasserie Constance, which offers modern British dining by Michelin-starred chef Adam Byatt, and the Lighthouse Social members’ club. In short, there’s something for everyone on every day of the week. Fulham Pier is not solely reliant on the footfall of fans.

“These people may not be interested in football,” Beattie continues, “but they see Craven Cottage and that space by the river as integral to the community.” She mentions comedy nights, live music and even roller discos. The boutique Fulham Pier Hotel is now open, while the Fulham Pier Spa will open its doors in the new year. The spa will offer a holistic wellness programme, including saunas, hammams, ice chalices, and a rooftop infinity pool designed for day and night use.

Its trump card is perhaps the reopening of the Thames Path between Putney Bridge and Hammersmith Bridge for the first time since 1896. Locals can grab a morning coffee from Kiss the Hippo or, later in the day, pop in for a slice of their preferred pizza and be on their way again. “Whether you’re walking your dog, going for a run, or out with your kids, we’ve created something of real value to the local community.”

Fulham Pier is an all-year-round operation valued by fans, neighbours and businesses alike. The club’s job is to “think about creating events and opportunities to drive footfall and create an experience from the first coffee of the morning through to the last drink in the night”.

7. MAXIMISE DWELL TIME

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“THERE’S NO QUEUING, NO FUSSINESS, IT’S THE IMMEDIACY OF THOSE EXPERIENCES AND REALLY LEANING INTO THE RIVERSIDE LOCATION.“

A fan having fun at Fulham Pier. Photo by Fulham Pier.

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Technology has its place in providing frictionless transactions, but the question is physical too.

Fulham’s Riverside Stand presented a technical challenge due to the site’s tight footprint next to the river – roof trusses were pre-fabricated and fire- protected at Tilbury Docks downstream before being delivered by barge up the Thames and lofted into place by a 400-tonne crane.

Yet the location also afforded a unique opportunity. “The building has been designed so that every aspect of the stand leans out towards the water, but

is immediately accessible to football seats in fewer than two minutes’ walk,” says Sarah Beattie. “There’s no queuing, no fussiness, it’s the immediacy of those experiences and really leaning into the riverside location. And when you look at the interiors, it’s the attention to detail, it’s the people that we worked with that are best-in-class architects, interior designers, and then creating those experiences.”

The Michelin-calibre dining, use of tech and human services all help to make the experience memorable. It is, Beattie concludes, “atmosphere by design”.

8. PROVIDE A FRICTIONLESS EXPERIENCE

Fans at Fulham Pier can go from bar to their seat in two minutes. Photo by Fulham Pier.

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HOW TECH ELEVATES THE F&B EXPERIENCE AT SPORTING EVENTS “IF YOU’RE NOT PROVIDING THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY, IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW GOOD YOUR CULINARY OUTPUT IS... THE JOURNEY IS DISAPPOINTING EVEN BEFORE THE FAN HAS ARRIVED AT THE CORE OFFERING.”

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The launch of Eastlands Venue Services [EVS] heralded a new era of F&B operations at the Etihad Campus in Manchester.

EVS began operating in April as a joint venture between City Football Group and the Oak View Group - a global leader in venue development, management and premium hospitality services for the live event industry - that brings client and catering operations under one umbrella.

They had long set the bar high. The Etihad Stadium is renowned as having one of the Premier League’s best F&B offerings. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and halal options have been standard for several seasons, as is sustainable packaging, while more than 70 percent of match day produce is sourced locally.

The bill of fare in general admission areas is popular, and the Etihad’s hospitality suites are some of the most impressive in the Premier League, such as the much-talked-about Tunnel Club.

The growing emphasis on a fan’s match day experience makes the creation of entities such as

EVS a logical next step for sports and entertainment venues. It is a 365-day operation that services more than 150 event days when taking into account Manchester City Women’s Joie Stadium and the Co- Op Live Arena. To meet the demand, EVS has more than 80 permanent staff and in excess of 3,000 casual workers.

Fan perceptions of F&B have never been more important. “It is no longer a question of just taking people’s money,” says Rocky Wilder-Conrad-Banks, who as the IT Director for EMEA at Oak View Group, is playing a fundamental role in the innovation in hospitality offerings being driven by EVS.

“Gone are the days where a customer would tolerate a pie or a hot Bovril thrown at them from a concession stand,” he continues. “Food & Beverage should feel like an experience now, whether you’re in general admission or hospitality.”

While his colleagues on Oak View Group’s culinary team are responsible for the “taste sensations” as he puts it, Wilder-Conrad-Banks oversees the strategy, deployment and maintenance of a venue’s

The Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester is part of one of the most advanced F&B offerings in the UK. Photo by Eastlands Venue Services.

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Food & Beverage technological infrastructure. It’s a remit that includes tills and touch screens as well as inventory management and data analytics.

“Before, we were an afterthought,” he says of the technology team. “Now people are thinking about how the customer will walk through the concession and what they’ll do while they’re there, their buying choices, the upsells you can give them at that point.”

More product in hands

“If you’re not providing the right technology, it doesn’t matter how good your culinary output is,” says Wilder-Conrad-Banks. He describes a typical scene of fans queueing five or six people deep at stadium concession stands. “The journey is disappointing even before the fan has arrived at the core offering.”

Hideaway at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester, UK, is a premium experience curated by renowned chef Simon Rimmer. Photo by Eastlands Venue Services.

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“NOW THREE OR FOUR SEASONS IN, THE NUMBERS DO NOT LIE – THEY SHOW YOU CAN GET MORE PRODUCT IN PEOPLE’S HANDS AND TAKE AWAY THE CHOICE DILEMMA AT THE TILL POINT.”

Oak View Group uses technology to place the fan experience front and centre, whether that be through more effective visual merchandising, menu presentation or even wayfinding. On their advice, venues are ripping out their traditional walk-up tills and employing servers with handheld devices (which also clears counter space and lets customers see their food being prepared). Some venues have even installed just-walk-out concessions, with the Tap, Grab, Go Store at the aforementioned Co-Op Arena a recent example.

The numbers can be startling. For example, Oak View Group took over as concessionaire at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in April and within weeks was hosting nearly 125,000 fans at a two-night WrestleMania event. Amongst the augmentations Oak View Group made in those first few weeks was the addition of 100 points of sale. It helped them to sell 14,702 hot dogs, 13,591 slices of pizza, 70,020 beers and 55,581 waters.

“The data wasn’t there before to prove their worth and the CapEx investment required,” says Wilder-

The Co-Op Live Arena has introduced a cashless, frictionless store called Tap, Grab, Go. It is one of the first of its kind in the UK. Photo by Manchester World.

A selection of F&B offerings for a Las Vegas Raiders game at Allegiant Stadium. Photo by lvsportsbiz.com.

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Conrad-Banks of tech-powered concessions. “Now three or four seasons in, the numbers do not lie – they show you can get more product in people’s hands and take away the choice dilemma at the till point.” There is less customer deliberation and they

don’t need to ask as many follow-up questions. With the right setup you can also eliminate those times when a bankcard does not work at the till.

All in all, tech that puts the customer first enables

NFL fans and food critics have labelled BBQ Mexicana’s Smoked Brisket Burrito as a ‘can’t miss food’ at Allegiant Stadium. Photo by Louiie Victa/Las Vegas Eater.

The VVIP dessert cart at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Photo by YouTube/Stupak Las Vegas

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“higher volumes, higher transaction rates, and faster fan experience and engagement for that second and third purchase because the fan is not feeling they have to go and stand in a queue for ten minutes and miss some of the action. Actually you can tap in, grab what you want, tap out and be back in your seat.”

As for which tech solutions are the best, that will depend on the concession. “What’s right for one isn’t right for others. There’s far more choice in the technology available and far more ways to deliver that fan experience properly.”

A more coherent tech ecosystem

“Providers are now joining the dots together,” says Wilder-Conrad-Banks. “Rather than purchasing from partner A and partner B, they’re purchasing from one source and the support and maintenance are from one place, the hardware purchase is from one place.”

As little as three or four years ago, venues would buy these different elements from different places. It led to the white elephant technologies that scarred the initial forays of venues into tech-supported Food & Beverage services. Today, moves such as

the creation of Eastlands Venue Services at the Etihad Campus underline the appetite for more streamlined services and operations.

“If you’re relying on six or seven partners to provide what they’re good at in those elements and they haven’t come together as a family to put that tech stack together, you can get some real problems. It degrades the fan experience when they battle over whose code is wrong. It should be one joined-up piece of thinking and that goes for things such as QR code ordering, self-ordering screens and self-checkouts.”

Real-time insights for low-risk

decision-making

Within a connected ecosystem, it is easier to gather and parse sales data both concerning the concessions themselves and their customers. Guess work and biases (“lazy thinking,” as Wilder-Conrad- Banks put it) have been brushed aside in favour of near-real-time insights.

“Data is vital to culinary teams being able to put together dishes that make sense and price up their dishes using inventory tools connected to their

The Co-Op Live Arena’s Encore steak restaurant uses locally-sourced meat.

Photo by Eastlands Venue Services.

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Sykes House Farm supplies poultry and other meats to the Etihad Stadium from nearby North Yorkshire. Photo by Instagram @sykeshousefarm.

vendors,” he says. It is not uncommon for different items to be popular at different counters within the same stadium, but innovation can be stifled by traditional thinking.

If a simple report demonstrates the differences in your sales patterns between, say, half time and two hours before kick-off, “it helps you to build offers and drivers to get people into stadiums quicker,” says Wilder-Conrad-Banks. “If no-one’s eating food or drink in the first two hours of opening but they are in the second two hours, how can we attract them in? How do we model offers with marketing that make it more of an event to come to all day and to stay afterwards as well in some venues?”

He admits it was a struggle to provide those datapoints until relatively recently. Now, one can ask if a decision made six months earlier is still on trend or if seasonal specials go down well with customers. “We can quickly remove something if it’s not working or increase it in other kiosks if it is. Data allows us to try new things with very little risk. Often Food & Beverage choices are diminished because there’s too much risk.”

Improved support for local vendors

Manchester City prides itself on being able to use local vendors. Its match day bread and cakes, for example, are sourced from Greenhalgh, an artisan bakery in Bolton, which is just 21 miles from the Etihad Stadium. And their poultry and other meats are sourced from the Sykes House Farm in North Yorkshire (63 miles from the stadium).

The customer benefits when you are able to expand your Food & Beverage offerings to local vendors and, with the right tech, guest concessions can be just as successful as your wider provision.

“We have the ability to support local brewers or local artisan bakers, for example, who wouldn’t have the technological infrastructure or logistical power to come into a stadium and sell,” says Wilder-Conrad-Banks.

The appeal for venue and vendor alike is obvious. “We can now provide all of that tech for them, so they bring what they’re good at: their produce. Waiting onsite for them is an EPOS that’s connected directly to their bank so they get paid directly the next day. You can provide them with staff that are fully trained in that EPOS, ready to deliver for them onsite when they get there.

“You make local vendors good at what they’re good at, which is their produce. They’re coming in without worrying that their tech doesn’t connect or that their queues are going to be longer than elsewhere.”

Hyper personalisation

Oak View Group installed ten AiFi-powered grab and go concessions at WrestleMania in Las Vegas. These used artificial intelligence, cameras and sensors to track customers and accurately identify items chosen by patrons and charge them

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accordingly. During the event, 11,000 fans passed through those concessions and purchased 18,000 items, with an average shopping time of under a minute.

Wilder-Conrad-Banks believes that fan data, with the help of ever-advancing AI, can be used in new and interesting ways, whether that’s to offer personalisation to the customer in the form of an on-screen avatar or customised offers (e.g. ‘did you forget to order the drink you usually order?’).

Additionally, the advent of biometric scanning has implications for age and intoxication control. “The new cameras on self-ordering units can detect on your face if there’s a reason we should interact with you before allowing you to continue,” he says.

The benefits, however, go far beyond that. “When you opt into biometric scanning it can give you so

much personalisation,” adds Wilder-Conrad-Banks. “You remember the movie Minority Report where they were popping adverts into people’s faces as they were walking around – that technology is not far away – it’s only a step around the corner.” As far as the fan is concerned, “they feel it’s happening as a magic experience” and that excites him in the most. “They have put marketing up just for me”, he adds, which has benefits beyond traditional marketing collateral “designed to catch 100 people at once”.

Wilder-Conrad-Banks also argues that as people spend more at sporting events and their expectations increase, it tends to accelerate the development of new technologies. He tells us it will not be long until we see robot hosts and holographic hosts in self-order units, adding to the sense of personalisation for the customer.

“It’s an exciting time to be in the stadium business.”

A selection of typical game day fare for the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium. Photo by allegiantstadium.com.

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‘WHEN DOES A TREND BECOME AN OPPORTUNITY? I THINK WE’RE CROSSING THAT BRIDGE RIGHT NOW’

Andy Hook is the Market Strategy Lead for Sports & Entertainment at Oracle.

He believes that a successful Food & Beverage operation stems from a wider understanding of how a team’s fans behave as consumers.

“Once teams get comfortable with putting the fan at the centre of their business performance, applying data from an AI and predictive analytics perspective, the sky is the limit in terms of creativity, fan experience and commercial returns for operators.”

Hook believes there are five F&B trends that are already transforming the sports industry. “When does a trend become an opportunity? I think we’re crossing that bridge right now.”

1. F&B is part of a ‘connected fan experience’

“The most positive trend I’ve seen is the breakdown of silos between venue operations teams and marketing/fan engagement teams,” says Hook. This includes point of sale, retail, ticketing, fan engagement, CRM, parking, turnstile entry, and e-commerce. Each produces datasets and, when those datasets are integrated, a team can better understand their fans’ behaviour such as when they enter the stadium, what they buy when they’re there, where they go afterwards, what type of content they engage with. AI and ML are playing critical roles in optimising F&B offerings.

Photo by oracle.com.

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2. The days of ‘spray and pray’ are over

Loyalty profile data (and known customer habits) are a premium currency in F&B. Oracle, courtesy of their CrowdTwist customer loyalty and engagement platform, helps organisations to build deeper relationships with their customers through personalised, multichannel experiences.

“It’s no longer a ‘spray and pray’ approach,” says Hook, who believes there is so much F&B potential in locked into loyalty profiles. For example, if you can predict that a fan is more likely to order food to their seat than to visit a concession (because they don’t want to miss any action or face a potentially long queue), you can send them a push notification with a customised discount for in-seat delivery.

“We’ve seen in-app custom notifications increase impulse buys by 15 to 20 percent.” At a globally representative NFL Stadium, smart upselling, tailored to a fan’s profile, has enabled a 16 percent increase in their F&B revenue.

Elsewhere, the Nashville Predators have gamified their F&B offering. “If you go to a game and call at three concession stands you’ll be entered into a sweep,” says Hook. “You could win a player meet-and-greet or other exclusive rewards”. It creates a “personalised community feel for fans and increases data capture”.

3. Improved spatial intelligence for vendors

Data enables stores to prevent proven bottlenecks, ensure better visual merchandising and improve sponsorship placement. “It’s also about the overall speed of transactions,” says

Hook. “If you’re in and out in ten seconds, that makes a difference when you’re thinking about monetising a 15-minute half-time interval.” You also track fans’ anonymous in-store behaviour, such as whether or not they pick up a sandwich and put it down again or how long they spend browsing. “This granular level insight into in- store behaviour is being used for shelf space optimisation, overall throughput and theft protection.”

4. More accurate F&B forecasting

As teams increasingly bring their data in- house, there is a greater opportunity to manage what Hook calls the “incremental variables”. “Every match day has its own intricacies,” he says, citing the example of a rainy day. “Or there’s a competing concert three miles away: what is that going to do for when fans arrive to our venue? Is there increased traffic half a mile away that will delay people?” This may influence a vendor’s stock levels for that day. “Is it a friendly or competitive game? How will that impact the demographics of our fanbase that day?” The answers may determine how many premium or basic products are sold that day.

5. Increased adoption of frictionless service

With real-time data telling you whether it’s time to replenish from the stock room, “you can translate the data into actionable insights for your match day staff,” says Hook, who believes the adoption will continue to grow. “Once the installation process is simplified – and continues to be made both cheaper and quicker – I predict a material uplift for autonomous retail stores in the next three to five years.”

Photo by oracle.com.

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