...and is faced with four young people huddled in a circle reading their iPhones/Droids behind the counter. After a 45-second pause, guy asks, "Ahem, are you serving concessions today?" Young man responds, "No." They return to their phones.  Finally, 20 seconds later, a person comes out from back room to provide service.

I was told they were out of popcorn, there were plenty of boxes at the stand next to them... they shared space. I stood in that line, asked if the two stands shared the food and she said yes... I said they told me they did not have popcorn and made me stand in your line.  She apologized, told them they had the popcorn and sent me on my way.

My group used to work concessions a few years ago and I know some of the non-profits that work there now.

I just spoke with one of them about the situation.  He said that they have been having problems all season with equipment breaking down and problems with the facility.  He basically told me that there is nothing that the groups can do besides pray that the managers get them food at the right time, otherwise they are totally screwed.  He also told me that the only line of communication they have with anyone is with text messaging.  Ever heard of a 2-way radio?

In my opinion, a few things need to happen:

1.  Cell phone use needs to be banned (this is a problem though, if it is the only way to get products to the stands)
2.  Upgrades to the facility.  From what I was told, two fuses broke yesterday and no one able to fix them.  OU had no one qualified to look at it until 20 minutes after the gate opened.
3.  Effective Communication - Especially in the North Tower.  What happens when that stand runs out of stuff.  It's not like they can whip a hotdog out of thin air.  Their storage for product is all the way on the other side of the stadium behind the student section.

While I agree that customer service can sometimes be a problem.  When it comes to some of this stuff, I don't know if there is anything else they can do better.  I remember when I worked at the grill (right inside the main entrance).  It was hard to get anything going and when you ran out of stuff, you had to wait until a representative of OU came by before you could request anything else.

What happened to the people walking around selling pop penuts and craker jacks? i seen them at game before but they never came into the stands this game none to be seen. It is probably quicker for them to get the right prices and change that way. Not everyone can add numbers when getting orders off top of their head.

Isn't the Sports Administration program at OU one of the better programs in the country? If so, wouldn't you expect a better overall fan experience? I'm not kidding when I say I've been to high school games that have a better food vendor system in place.

Even in the old days you could mess up someone by doing odd things to them, like paying $1.08 by handing them 4 dimes and 3 pennies, and then 3 quarters, but today you don't even have to try.

You need to share where that line was/is Ben, not the beer line, but the line that had no line.

As for BG, how are they doing it this year?  They've had beer in the Falcon Club in the endzone for quite some time.

Ohio 49
BGSU 25

Only numbers I care about right now...

I mentor/tutor 4th grade kids in math. Even the weakest of those kids can do 5 x 3 without a calculator.

Wait.... So why did this guy need the girl to tell him what 5x3 was?

The concession stand under 102 (the end) almost always has the shortest lines. Not always 'no line' but usually better than the ones you pass to get there. Hopefully that continues :)

No idea of BG's logistics for serving beer though. It's pretty normal everywhere else, so I'm sure it's relatively easy & profitable. But I don't have the time at the moment to get on my soapbox.

Toledo Blade

ben

I have heard the University of Dayton AD say that their rule of thumb for profit on alcohol sales is that they net $2 on everyone in attendance. So if Ohio football and basketball combine to get 200K in attendance (they were roughly at that number last year and may do better this year), they are giving up around $400K in revenue. I'm not sure how long you can continue to do that given budget constraints you have. Even if you adjust for not selling to students and inflated attendance numbers, you're probably giving up about $200K to $300K per year.

He didn't have a calculator with him?