Has anyone on the board reached out to our AD Jeff Bourne or anyone else in Athletic Department or Duke Club about their concerns with hour long waits in the concession lines like we had today on the upper level or extended stays in beer lines?
For us to move to the next level as a program we can't keep providing what some would say is "bush league" service/game day experience IMO.
I brought all 3 adult kids (all JMU grads) to the game. Four times they went down to get food and each time they came back empty handed because the lines were so long. This is totally unacceptable, has been this way for a long time, and really needs to be fixed.
I will say that this is not a problem that is unique to JMU. While I have been disappointed not to get back to HBurg since 2019, I have been lucky enough to go to three Power 5 stadiums, and a bowl game in that time period. At every single one of those games, the concessions have been horrible: from quality of food to wait time. For the most part, the people working there are friendly enough, but they are inefficient. The lines were so bad at the Rutgers-Michigan game a few weeks ago, that I literally gave up and just didn't eat anything. This is after leaving my house at 4:30pm for a 7:30pm game and just deciding to wait till I got home at 2am to eat dinner.
At a home JMU game at this point, I would just eat at the tailgate. The ability to get a water, soda, or beer during the game really needs to be easy. And the process shouldn't be as difficult as it seems to be everywhere though.
There are a lot of stadiums out there that do it well, too. A few things that I've seen that speed up the process:
1) Ordering and payment only at touch screen kiosks away from the pick-up area. Related: App ordering. Imagine ordering from your seat, waiting until you get confirmation that it's ready, then just going to pick up your completed order.
2) Card payment only...no cash.
3) limit the selection of items....just carry the basics, and focus on foods and beverages that are quicker to distribute. For example....bottled sodas rather than fountain.
4) More portable vendors / carts placed throughout the stadium to sell beverages.
At the 38 second mark here is what they had at Louisville that was very efficient. I used these every time I needed anything, there was no wait at all very shortly before the game and very little wait at halftime. I didn't leave right away at halftime, ended up talking to some friends a bit in the concourse after, and still got back to my seat way before halftime was over:
If they could pop up a handful of something similar around a few spots that could leave the main concessions just to people wanting cooked food and let people just wanting drinks and small snacks quickly move through. At the end of each station they had like four people set up quickly scanning your stuff and charging your card... You could even add the option to pay on your phone and speed it up even more as long as our phones work in the stadium... Which is another issue.
(11-26-2022 11:56 PM)NYJMUPIKE Wrote: [ -> ]I will say that this is not a problem that is unique to JMU. While I have been disappointed not to get back to HBurg since 2019, I have been lucky enough to go to three Power 5 stadiums, and a bowl game in that time period. At every single one of those games, the concessions have been horrible: from quality of food to wait time. For the most part, the people working there are friendly enough, but they are inefficient. The lines were so bad at the Rutgers-Michigan game a few weeks ago, that I literally gave up and just didn't eat anything. This is after leaving my house at 4:30pm for a 7:30pm game and just deciding to wait till I got home at 2am to eat dinner.
At a home JMU game at this point, I would just eat at the tailgate. The ability to get a water, soda, or beer during the game really needs to be easy. And the process shouldn't be as difficult as it seems to be everywhere though.
Great, but on a more apples to apples comparison I’d rather compare it to say ODU. They have the same Virginia liquor laws and host a similar sized crowd. There is no excuse for what we currently have in place with no corrections being made. The extra staff they need to man extra kiosks or carts would easily be paid from the lost revenue that would suddenly be realized. They could also allocate the people currently providing wristbands and Sharpie Xs on you to a more useful part of the process.
We pay some food concession company a lot of money because they could allegedly do it better and cheaper than JMU doing it in-house. We deserve better and we’re missing out on revenue and fan experience.
I’ve stated it before, but would love it if the DNR did an in depth story on the financials of game day operations. I have a sneaking suspicion that even though we expanded the stadium by 50%, our net profit per game are not keeping pace in terms of food and drink.
(11-26-2022 11:56 PM)NYJMUPIKE Wrote: [ -> ]I will say that this is not a problem that is unique to JMU. While I have been disappointed not to get back to HBurg since 2019, I have been lucky enough to go to three Power 5 stadiums, and a bowl game in that time period. At every single one of those games, the concessions have been horrible: from quality of food to wait time. For the most part, the people working there are friendly enough, but they are inefficient. The lines were so bad at the Rutgers-Michigan game a few weeks ago, that I literally gave up and just didn't eat anything. This is after leaving my house at 4:30pm for a 7:30pm game and just deciding to wait till I got home at 2am to eat dinner.
At a home JMU game at this point, I would just eat at the tailgate. The ability to get a water, soda, or beer during the game really needs to be easy. And the process shouldn't be as difficult as it seems to be everywhere though.
Great, but on a more apples to apples comparison I’d rather compare it to say ODU. They have the same Virginia liquor laws and host a similar sized crowd. There is no excuse for what we currently have in place with no corrections being made. The extra staff they need to man extra kiosks or carts would easily be paid from the lost revenue that would suddenly be realized. They could also allocate the people currently providing wristbands and Sharpie Xs on you to a more useful part of the process.
Didn't make it to the ODU game, and genuinely curious what they did different? Did they not have ID checks with wristbands? More distribution points?
Thought I saw some ODU fan comments that the lines were longer than usual for them, so maybe our fans also consume more than the avg ODU fan?
(11-26-2022 11:56 PM)NYJMUPIKE Wrote: [ -> ]I will say that this is not a problem that is unique to JMU. While I have been disappointed not to get back to HBurg since 2019, I have been lucky enough to go to three Power 5 stadiums, and a bowl game in that time period. At every single one of those games, the concessions have been horrible: from quality of food to wait time. For the most part, the people working there are friendly enough, but they are inefficient. The lines were so bad at the Rutgers-Michigan game a few weeks ago, that I literally gave up and just didn't eat anything. This is after leaving my house at 4:30pm for a 7:30pm game and just deciding to wait till I got home at 2am to eat dinner.
At a home JMU game at this point, I would just eat at the tailgate. The ability to get a water, soda, or beer during the game really needs to be easy. And the process shouldn't be as difficult as it seems to be everywhere though.
Great, but on a more apples to apples comparison I’d rather compare it to say ODU. They have the same Virginia liquor laws and host a similar sized crowd. There is no excuse for what we currently have in place with no corrections being made. The extra staff they need to man extra kiosks or carts would easily be paid from the lost revenue that would suddenly be realized. They could also allocate the people currently providing wristbands and Sharpie Xs on you to a more useful part of the process.
Didn't make it to the ODU game, and genuinely curious what they did different? Did they not have ID checks with wristbands? More distribution points?
Thought I saw some ODU fan comments that the lines were longer than usual for them, so maybe our fans also consume more than the avg ODU fan?
If I’m wrong please let me know, I’m only going off what I saw and experienced. I sat near the Jumbotron endzone so I used the concessions near that endzone. There were no wristbands and no black magic marker marking you as if you’re getting into a frat party, the longest line I saw would be dwarfed by our shortest. And when I did make a concession run I noticed the line and walked maybe 50’ towards more of the middle of the bleachers and there were no lines whatever, so I didn’t understand why people waited in that one long line. (Which is part of the sheep mentality, just like at BFS where people, mostly students, see a long line and jump in at the end and hanging out in line ends up being social hour. Regardless of the fact that is one long line that ultimately leads to one checkout when there’s probably a dozen checkouts at the counter and you could walk up and get in a much shorter line). Anyway back to the ODU concession at midfield, there you grabbed what you wanted and headed to the checkout, where there were people helping you pay than there were customers there.
Their restroom lines backed up a little and I think that was largely due to the design of one door that is the in and out door. If you can in through the in door and out the out door there wouldn’t be that jammed up choke point at the entrance. Even with the lines being what they were it wasn’t too bad, just what you should expect with 20k+ people headed to the restrooms, time your trips properly and you’ll be ok. Even at BFS with the ridiculous amount of tv timeouts I can time it off the officials clock, know when he’s getting ready to call one, head for the head and get back without missing any action.
(11-26-2022 11:56 PM)NYJMUPIKE Wrote: [ -> ]I will say that this is not a problem that is unique to JMU. While I have been disappointed not to get back to HBurg since 2019, I have been lucky enough to go to three Power 5 stadiums, and a bowl game in that time period. At every single one of those games, the concessions have been horrible: from quality of food to wait time. For the most part, the people working there are friendly enough, but they are inefficient. The lines were so bad at the Rutgers-Michigan game a few weeks ago, that I literally gave up and just didn't eat anything. This is after leaving my house at 4:30pm for a 7:30pm game and just deciding to wait till I got home at 2am to eat dinner.
At a home JMU game at this point, I would just eat at the tailgate. The ability to get a water, soda, or beer during the game really needs to be easy. And the process shouldn't be as difficult as it seems to be everywhere though.
Great, but on a more apples to apples comparison I’d rather compare it to say ODU. They have the same Virginia liquor laws and host a similar sized crowd. There is no excuse for what we currently have in place with no corrections being made. The extra staff they need to man extra kiosks or carts would easily be paid from the lost revenue that would suddenly be realized. They could also allocate the people currently providing wristbands and Sharpie Xs on you to a more useful part of the process.
Didn't make it to the ODU game, and genuinely curious what they did different? Did they not have ID checks with wristbands? More distribution points?
Thought I saw some ODU fan comments that the lines were longer than usual for them, so maybe our fans also consume more than the avg ODU fan?
If I’m wrong please let me know, I’m only going off what I saw and experienced. I sat near the Jumbotron endzone so I used the concessions near that endzone. There were no wristbands and no black magic marker marking you as if you’re getting into a frat party, the longest line I saw would be dwarfed by our shortest. And when I did make a concession run I noticed the line and walked maybe 50’ towards more of the middle of the bleachers and there were no lines whatever, so I didn’t understand why people waited in that one long line. (Which is part of the sheep mentality, just like at BFS where people, mostly students, see a long line and jump in at the end and hanging out in line ends up being social hour. Regardless of the fact that is one long line that ultimately leads to one checkout when there’s probably a dozen checkouts at the counter and you could walk up and get in a much shorter line). Anyway back to the ODU concession at midfield, there you grabbed what you wanted and headed to the checkout, where there were people helping you pay than there were customers there.
Their restroom lines backed up a little and I think that was largely due to the design of one door that is the in and out door. If you can in through the in door and out the out door there wouldn’t be that jammed up choke point at the entrance. Even with the lines being what they were it wasn’t too bad, just what you should expect with 20k+ people headed to the restrooms, time your trips properly and you’ll be ok. Even at BFS with the ridiculous amount of tv timeouts I can time it off the officials clock, know when he’s getting ready to call one, head for the head and get back without missing any action.
My two takeaways:
- ODU didn't use wristbands. Did they have ID check at all?
- It sounds like they had a "grab and go" system where you only queue for payment, sort of cafeteria style. It makes sense that could be more efficient than people standing at a cashier trying to decide what to order and then waiting for the order to be assembled. Not sure if our current facility design could accommodate that or not.
Our lines are terrible. Concessions MUST be addressed. I decided to go for the beer this week, and waited 25 minutes (might have been 20 if students wouldn't buck the line) and my mother went for first concession stand as you enter the main concourse and was gone for 45 minutes. I can't imagine it getting much worse than it is. The lines were absurd from kickoff through the 4th.
My email to Jeff Bourne that I sent about 10 minutes ago where I should have stated in order to make the Gameday experience in the stadium "elite":
Mr. Bourne -
As a long time James Madison University Football season ticket holder, first with my college roommate and his wife then with my wife and one of my best work friend's who's an alum, I want to say how much we've enjoyed the pre-game tailgate experiencies over the years in P Lot and Lot C4.
In addition, I want to compliment the Facilities Management folks for doing an exceptional job of cleaning up streamers that are thrown after a JMU score on gamedays
If we are to become known for the Gameday experience inside the stadium, improvements are necessary to make the game experience better when it comes to línes for concessions and beer as well as access to WIFI.
After not even attempting to get in either of the two lines yesterday but getting in the concession line when they were run by volunteers on the upper deck last week that jtook ever bit of 20-25 minutes to get a hot chocolate, I believe just putting in a formal winding line with an entrance and exit would improve the process that as I understand it from the fans around us yesterday took upwards to an hour to complete.
Thanks in advance for allowing me to bring this issue to your attention.
(11-26-2022 11:56 PM)NYJMUPIKE Wrote: [ -> ]I will say that this is not a problem that is unique to JMU. While I have been disappointed not to get back to HBurg since 2019, I have been lucky enough to go to three Power 5 stadiums, and a bowl game in that time period. At every single one of those games, the concessions have been horrible: from quality of food to wait time. For the most part, the people working there are friendly enough, but they are inefficient. The lines were so bad at the Rutgers-Michigan game a few weeks ago, that I literally gave up and just didn't eat anything. This is after leaving my house at 4:30pm for a 7:30pm game and just deciding to wait till I got home at 2am to eat dinner.
At a home JMU game at this point, I would just eat at the tailgate. The ability to get a water, soda, or beer during the game really needs to be easy. And the process shouldn't be as difficult as it seems to be everywhere though.
Great, but on a more apples to apples comparison I’d rather compare it to say ODU. They have the same Virginia liquor laws and host a similar sized crowd. There is no excuse for what we currently have in place with no corrections being made. The extra staff they need to man extra kiosks or carts would easily be paid from the lost revenue that would suddenly be realized. They could also allocate the people currently providing wristbands and Sharpie Xs on you to a more useful part of the process.
Didn't make it to the ODU game, and genuinely curious what they did different? Did they not have ID checks with wristbands? More distribution points?
Thought I saw some ODU fan comments that the lines were longer than usual for them, so maybe our fans also consume more than the avg ODU fan?
If I’m wrong please let me know, I’m only going off what I saw and experienced. I sat near the Jumbotron endzone so I used the concessions near that endzone. There were no wristbands and no black magic marker marking you as if you’re getting into a frat party, the longest line I saw would be dwarfed by our shortest. And when I did make a concession run I noticed the line and walked maybe 50’ towards more of the middle of the bleachers and there were no lines whatever, so I didn’t understand why people waited in that one long line. (Which is part of the sheep mentality, just like at BFS where people, mostly students, see a long line and jump in at the end and hanging out in line ends up being social hour. Regardless of the fact that is one long line that ultimately leads to one checkout when there’s probably a dozen checkouts at the counter and you could walk up and get in a much shorter line). Anyway back to the ODU concession at midfield, there you grabbed what you wanted and headed to the checkout, where there were people helping you pay than there were customers there.
Their restroom lines backed up a little and I think that was largely due to the design of one door that is the in and out door. If you can in through the in door and out the out door there wouldn’t be that jammed up choke point at the entrance. Even with the lines being what they were it wasn’t too bad, just what you should expect with 20k+ people headed to the restrooms, time your trips properly and you’ll be ok. Even at BFS with the ridiculous amount of tv timeouts I can time it off the officials clock, know when he’s getting ready to call one, head for the head and get back without missing any action.
My two takeaways:
- ODU didn't use wristbands. Did they have ID check at all?
- It sounds like they had a "grab and go" system where you only queue for payment, sort of cafeteria style. It makes sense that could be more efficient than people standing at a cashier trying to decide what to order and then waiting for the order to be assembled. Not sure if our current facility design could accommodate that or not.
Drinks were pre poured at ODU in cups with ice on the counters where i was. no going back and forth to make the order.
this is basic crowd concessions 101 unless you have an army behind the counter like pro games.
we have a lot to learn to be able to meet demand .
App state was a breeze to get beer in MANY spots all around the stadium.. this idea of dedicated / separate beer stations is stupid.. this is big boy football now and we are running concessions like high school. Beer has to be accessible at every concession stand . people are NOT coming into the stadium to get drunk ( easily done well before if that's your intention ) so don't make it even more difficult to get a drink than a coke or hot dog ( I.d can be done at Point of sale)
The problem we have with concessions is Systemic, not a human problem.. the folks doing the serving are doing the best they can with the poor system set up for gameday - bottlenecks with payment , custom order service behind the counter, not enough Points of sale are all systemic problems that could be solved in an off season if our gameday admin cares to.
(11-27-2022 08:16 PM)JMU1987UVA1998 Wrote: [ -> ]My email to Jeff Bourne that I sent about 10 minutes ago where I should have stated in order to make the Gameday experience in the stadium "elite":
Mr. Bourne -
As a long time James Madison University Football season ticket holder, first with my college roommate and his wife then with my wife and one of my best work friend's who's an alum, I want to say how much we've enjoyed the pre-game tailgate experiencies over the years in P Lot and Lot C4.
In addition, I want to compliment the Facilities Management folks for doing an exceptional job of cleaning up streamers that are thrown after a JMU score on gamedays
If we are to become known for the Gameday experience inside the stadium, improvements are necessary to make the game experience better when it comes to línes for concessions and beer as well as access to WIFI.
After not even attempting to get in either of the two lines yesterday but getting in the concession line when they were run by volunteers on the upper deck last week that jtook ever bit of 20-25 minutes to get a hot chocolate, I believe just putting in a formal winding line with an entrance and exit would improve the process that as I understand it from the fans around us yesterday took upwards to an hour to complete.
Thanks in advance for allowing me to bring this issue to your attention.
I had not thought of this, but a snake system leading to openings to each register would go a long way to help. That's a good suggestion. No more wondering from line to line, just get in line and go to whomever is open at the end. I bet that would speed things up a lot right out of the jump.
The concession lines are horrible at BFS every game day. We usually get in early b/c I am one of the 'dorky' dudes that likes to watch warmups....but it is also for a couple of other reasons:
- It is easy to get into the stadium early
- Concessions are easy then (no way I am getting anything from concession during the game, I am there to watch a football game and will miss at least half a quarter)
- Also the last 2 weeks at different concessions stands the folks doing the checkout had no idea how to process a student Duke Deal....so the student wound up having to pay for something that should have been used as part of meal plan (this is unexcusable......maybe this is a symptom of volunteers but should be super easy.)
I have no doubt many others are like me and JMU leaves a lot of concessions $$$ on the table b/c folks just refuse to wait in those lines if they care about actually watching the football game.
I guaran-damn-tee you if this fiasco happened in the Duke Club it would be addressed before the next game and corrected. This has been going on now for years at BFS concessions.
This past game was so poorly staffed (I don't want to hear about Thanksgiving weekend --- this game has been on the schedule for 6 months).....half the concessions windows on the upper section were not even open.
(11-27-2022 08:16 PM)JMU1987UVA1998 Wrote: [ -> ]My email to Jeff Bourne that I sent about 10 minutes ago where I should have stated in order to make the Gameday experience in the stadium "elite":
Mr. Bourne -
As a long time James Madison University Football season ticket holder, first with my college roommate and his wife then with my wife and one of my best work friend's who's an alum, I want to say how much we've enjoyed the pre-game tailgate experiencies over the years in P Lot and Lot C4.
In addition, I want to compliment the Facilities Management folks for doing an exceptional job of cleaning up streamers that are thrown after a JMU score on gamedays
If we are to become known for the Gameday experience inside the stadium, improvements are necessary to make the game experience better when it comes to línes for concessions and beer as well as access to WIFI.
After not even attempting to get in either of the two lines yesterday but getting in the concession line when they were run by volunteers on the upper deck last week that jtook ever bit of 20-25 minutes to get a hot chocolate, I believe just putting in a formal winding line with an entrance and exit would improve the process that as I understand it from the fans around us yesterday took upwards to an hour to complete.
Thanks in advance for allowing me to bring this issue to your attention.
I had not thought of this, but a snake system leading to openings to each register would go a long way to help. That's a good suggestion. No more wondering from line to line, just get in line and go to whomever is open at the end. I bet that would speed things up a lot right out of the jump.
Take a freaking queue from Chik-Filet-A with the single queue.....they are the best in the business processing customers and orders like this.
(11-27-2022 08:16 PM)JMU1987UVA1998 Wrote: [ -> ]My email to Jeff Bourne that I sent about 10 minutes ago where I should have stated in order to make the Gameday experience in the stadium "elite":
Mr. Bourne -
As a long time James Madison University Football season ticket holder, first with my college roommate and his wife then with my wife and one of my best work friend's who's an alum, I want to say how much we've enjoyed the pre-game tailgate experiencies over the years in P Lot and Lot C4.
In addition, I want to compliment the Facilities Management folks for doing an exceptional job of cleaning up streamers that are thrown after a JMU score on gamedays
If we are to become known for the Gameday experience inside the stadium, improvements are necessary to make the game experience better when it comes to línes for concessions and beer as well as access to WIFI.
After not even attempting to get in either of the two lines yesterday but getting in the concession line when they were run by volunteers on the upper deck last week that jtook ever bit of 20-25 minutes to get a hot chocolate, I believe just putting in a formal winding line with an entrance and exit would improve the process that as I understand it from the fans around us yesterday took upwards to an hour to complete.
Thanks in advance for allowing me to bring this issue to your attention.
I had not thought of this, but a snake system leading to openings to each register would go a long way to help. That's a good suggestion. No more wondering from line to line, just get in line and go to whomever is open at the end. I bet that would speed things up a lot right out of the jump.
Take a freaking queue from Chik-Filet-A with the single queue.....they are the best in the business processing customers and orders like this.
Sounds like a great sponsorship opportunity to me. Just hire Chick-Fil-A to be the exclusive concessions provider of Bridgeforth Stadium. Knock out two issues at once.
