Mercedes-benz Stadium Is Again Cutting Concessions Prices
ATLANTA — When Arthur Blank rolled out his "fan-beginning pricing" in connection with the opening of Mercedes-Benz Stadium ii seasons agone – a 50 percent across-the-board chop on sure food and beverage prices – you could just imagine the cringing rage of the Falcons owner'southward beau NFL overlords: What? Leaving concession coin on the tabular array? Simply soaking fans for bad hot dogs and watery beer is one of our most cherished traditions!
"We had a number of owners who weren't agreement the dynamic, the reasoning, the logic," Blank said at a news briefing Wednesday afternoon. "[They were asking], 'Does this make good sense economically?' We never justified it in terms of economics, only today we can."
Blank's movement toward cheap eats – which, against all standard practice, is still in force for the Super Basin and other major events – gave the NFL something it couldn't purchase, no matter how difficult it tried: good press. It seems a little absurd &ndash: and an indictment of how off-kilter the fan experience has gotten in the last 20 years – that the idea of cheap pretzels can mitigate against the many issues, both external and self-inflicted, the NFL has faced. But that'due south exactly what's happened. Bare indicated that fifteen teams across a range of college and pro sports take followed the Falcons' pb, and he added that The Falcons' "books are open" for any team wanting to follow in Atlanta's footsteps.
Granted, for fans the numbers aren't quite as glittery equally they seem once yous factor in all the ancillary costs of going to a Falcons game, plus the psychological impacts that lower prices have on purchasing deportment. But all the same, it'southward like the quondam business-schoolhouse maxim says: a $ii hot domestic dog buys yous more goodwill than a seven-9 season always could.
The Falcons' cheap-eats pricing covers all the ballpark basics: soda, h2o, pretzels and hot dogs are two bucks; nachos, waffle fries and pizza are three; beer and cheeseburgers are a five-spot; and chicken tenders and chips are half-dozen. It is, then, realistically possible to feed a family of four at a ballgame without having to have out a 2nd mortgage.
"It's working in terms of economics, but we didn't do information technology in terms of economics," Blank said. "We did information technology because information technology'southward the right affair to practice for the people who are supporting our concern."
Just Arthur Blank didn't become a billionaire past slicing prices 50 per centum without expecting something in return, and it'southward hither that we annotation the caveats to the fan-starting time pricing. Not every fan is going to go with the two-cadet hot canis familiaris option; once you're in the door, savvy marketers know yous're a lot probable to spend more than you expected. You know this as the "$100 Target run" effect, and co-ordinate to the Falcons, it played out to perfection: during the 2022 flavour, even though prices dropped by 50 percent, fans spent 16 percent more than they had at the Georgia Dome.
And if you know anything about the economic science of nutrient service, you know that restaurants turn phenomenal profits on soft drinks, somewhere on the order of sixty per centum to 75 percent. You lot're not getting those gratis refills out of the kindness of the restaurateurs' hearts; y'all're getting them because they've already turned a turn a profit on you. A souvenir cup and a few shots of syrup and carbonated water don't cost iv dollars.
Plus, to even get into the stadium for a standard Falcons game without striking the secondary market place, you've got to pay for a Personal Seat License that runs from $500 for the highest levels to $45,000 for order levels. The Falcons don't offer any single-game tickets for auction; everything's controlled by those PSLs.
And hey, from the Falcons' perspective, y'all get them in the door and you can get them opening their wallet for pricier markups like merch. A fan that'southward spending less on food and drinkable has more to spend on merchandise; Falcons president Rich McKay noted last summer that the Falcons saw a ninety-pct increase in trade sales from 2022 to 2017.
The Falcons' maneuver, then, is less about the bottom line – that's going to be but fine – and more about winning the ongoing battle between the stadium and the couch. The Falcons ranked starting time in fan experience surveys for 2017, in part considering of the food and potable chemical element, and Blank expects the same kind of high ranking for the 2022 flavor.
"The idea came from the delivery, the notion, to continually find a way to say 'cheers' to our fans," Blank said. "All the facilities and arenas beyond the state need to acknowledge that in whatever way we tin can."
With fan-friendly promises like that, Blank might non want to shut the door on politics. Inexpensive beer is e'er a winning slogan.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/cheap-beer-good-press-falcons-fan-friendly-pricing-win-win-191626117.html
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